


The Legend of Link

by vktrnkfrv



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Zelda, Breath of the Wild Spoilers, But it won't be until later, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, How Do I Tag, Hurt Link, Hurt Zelda, Hurt/Comfort, Link is a damsel in destress, Link needs a hug, Not Beta Read, Post-Breath of the Wild, Pre-Breath of the Wild, Role Reversal, Romantic Fluff, Sad with a Happy Ending, Zelda Needs a Hug, Zelda has issues, Zelda is the hero, Zelda kicks ass, Zelink is a thing, alternative universe, but its not like the main idea, everyone is hurt, like really later, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23749447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vktrnkfrv/pseuds/vktrnkfrv
Summary: “Master Link!” Impa called as he walked through the threshold of the house. “Where’s Princess Zelda?”“A couple of her warriors have taken her to the Shine of Resurrection.” Link replied. Impa said nothing, instead she had a pensive look on her face. “I’ve failed.” Link suddenly muttered.-"You are the hero Zelda, and your knight needs to be saved."-Instead of Link, Zelda is sent to the Shrine of Resurrection, while Link goes to Hyrule Castle alone to contain Ganon. 100 years later, Zelda stumbles out of the shrine, with no memories and the task to defeat and conceal Ganon.
Relationships: Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Urbosa & Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 112





	1. Chapter One

_**The Legend of Link: Breath of the Wild** _

_**Chapter One** _

* * *

The rain pelted down on the princess and her appointed knight, soaking them to the bone. Their goal, which seemed simple enough written down, regroup at Kakariko Village. But now the Sheikah Village seemed like miles away. Zelda and Link ran past the Dueling Peaks Tavern. They came to a stop at the fork where the path on the left lead to Kakariko Village and the one on the right lead to Hateno Village, passing through the fort.

"Perhaps we should rest at the fort." Zelda said. "I mean Kakariko is still a solid few hours by foot. We're much closer to Hateno Fort. We could rest and have some of your wounds looked at." The princess spared a glance at her appointed knight. She had no doubt in her mind if she would to let go of his hand he would collapse on the ground.

"Whatever one you chose we need to go now." Link said with urgency in his voice.

Zelda hesitated for a few moments before she turned on her heel and ran towards Hateno Fort. Their feet clumsily thumped on the ground as they ran towards the small Fort. There was a slight breeze and they both shivered. The cold was eating them up alive. If Ganon wouldn't end up killing them, the hypothermia would. The thought alone was enough for Zelda and Link to run a little faster.

In the distance, both Link and Zelda could hear screams and canons firing. Reluctantly, the pair turned around and saw the guardians had caught up to them and was laying waste to the small settlement by the tavern they had past only moments ago. Link stopped, he had unsheathed the Master Sword and looked intended to run and help out.

"No Link," Zelda pulled him along. "You would be no help in your condition. I know it is a heavy loss, but we can only hope that some of the people will survive and rise." Link said nothing and pulled back, making Zelda stop in her tracks. "If you go and help, you will die. And what help to the greater Hyrule will you be then?"

Link was frustrated. Running from something like this went right up against him. He couldn't, he wouldn't. What good was it to be either a knight or hero if you couldn't help the people you cared about. Link knew deep down you couldn't save everyone, you would go insane trying. He was the hero chosen by the sword, so would the goddess really let him die like that. Link knew it was a selfish and arrogant idea. He turned to look up at the princess and saw a fierce look of determination on her face. She was going to stop him and there would be nothing he could do about it. Link eventually caved and started to lead Zelda to the fort. At the every least he will protect the princess, as he had sworn to do. He was secretly hoping she would be well protected at the fort so he could go and fight.

The Princess and Knight ran faster. As they were running towards to the fort, they felt a rumble on the ground, coming towards them, they looked up and saw most of the knights who were up in the fort had gone down and were trying to fight off the guardians. Link wanted to pull his hand out of Zelda's and run to help, but as much as it hurt him, he shook the idea out of his mind and ran even faster to the fort.

"We're almost there!" Zelda called out as she saw the gate in the distance. Link heard it first. Mechanical steps making their way through the trees surround the fort. He heard a high pitch screeching sound and was quick to push Zelda out of the way and take the blast. He flew a couple of yards before he hit a near by tree.

"Link!"

"No stay back." Link spoke softly as he tried to pull himself up from the ground. He ended up planting the Master Sword into the ground and used that as stake to pull himself up. "You need to run Zelda. Only you have the power to seal Ganon away-" Link was abruptly cut off as he saw the guardian come back, he was quick to forget about the pain plaguing him and he ran and attacked the guardian. He managed to cut off a few of the legs with the Master Sword, before as a last resort, the guardian fired up the beam again. Link planted his feet firmly in the ground and parried the attack with the sword as it fired at him. In a flash of light the guardian fell dead, as it had done in the training grounds when Link first parried off the blast with a pot lid.

Zelda had fallen to the ground on her knees. The gravity of the situation had finally settled on her. They were all going to fail because she couldn't unlock her powers in time. She felt completely helpless as she saw Link continue to fight off the two more guardians that had found them. She had never felt so useless in her life. Perhaps her father was right, if she had spent more time in her prayers instead of trying to be a scholar, she would have the power to finish this. She could have saved so many people, not to mention the Champions. All of whom were ready to help her, to follow her lead, to die for the greater good of Hyrule. Never before had she had such a sick feeling to her stomach. Urbosa, Revali, Daruk and Mipha were all gone. Zelda had rejoiced when she saw the beams of blue light erupt from each of the Divine Beasts, they had a fighting chance, they could succeed. They could do the very thing they were all destined for, but the moment only lasted a few seconds before she saw one by one, each of the Beasts turn off. As much as she wanted to have faith in the chosen Champions, she knew that Ganon had managed to best them all. Her heart had crumbled, her saving grace was when Link had keeled with her and wrapped his arms in a warm hug, something she had never imagined her stoic knight to ever do.

Helplessness flooded her as she watched Link fight another guardian. Zelda was desperately looking on the muddy ground to try and find anything that could help Link. Once again, Link was her saving grace, while he was fighting the guardians, she had found his pouch that had fallen on the ground, she knew he constantly carried an array of different weapons. She dug around the deceivingly small pouch and found a Royal Guards Bow at the bottom with a quiver of arrows as well. She had often had archery lessons when she was little, and was often found practising with her mother. They had all called her a natural as within her first lessons, she was shooting bullseyes. However, it had been years since she had shot an arrow, she had only hoped her natural talent would be enough for her to help Link and not be a hindrance

Another guardian came, Link was struggling to stand, Zelda was quick to stand in front and pull back the draw string and with a twang, the arrow was fired and make it mark in the middle of the eye.

_I'm sorry my child._

Zelda turned and tried to look around to find the voice.

_I know you desperately seek my power, but I can't give it to you. Instead, I'll lend this to you._

Zelda watched in awe as the bow in her hand was taken over in a golden light. The bow had changed, it was no longer the navy and purple colour, instead, it was an ornate golden bow. The light from the bow, was almost blinding. Zelda noticed her quiver of arrows had disappeared, but when she pulled the drawstring, an arrow materialised in her hands. Link had managed to stand, and was now next to Zelda. He turned to smile at he and the pair went to take down some of the guardians.

A stray guardian had found them, and aimed a beam at Zelda. Link saw this and was quick to try and warn the princess.

"Zelda!" Link called out. He ran to her. "Watch out-"

There was an almighty blast, Link was not hit by it, but the force was enough to send him flying through the air and into another tree. Zelda, had taken the full brunt of the blast and was lying only a few feet away from Link.

Zelda looked around. There was a ringing in her ears, she felt like every muscle, bone and piece of skin on her was on fire. She saw the guardian coming closer before she heard it. She reached for the Bow of Light. It was no where near her, she looked around and saw it lying by Link. The bow was casting a light over him, she could see he was struggling to lift his eyes open. When he did open his eyes, she saw the fight leave Link's eyes, but the one message in his eyes was obvious. Run. Run and leave me. Link might have admitted defeat, but Zelda refused to. She heard the whining of the guardian, it was about to land the killing blow to Link. With a newfound strength, she stood up and ran towards her knight.

"NO!" Zelda stood in front of the guardian and held her hand up. Zelda was hoping this was going to work, though she had never had much success before, she was going to try and force the goddess to give Zelda her power. She needed it, otherwise Hyrule will fall into darkness and chaos. She waited, there was nothing. Not even a tingle of power. Zelda stood there for what felt like a hundred years. But there was nothing happening, without giving Zelda any chance to move out of the way, the guardian fired three consecutive shots at Zelda. Zelda didn't even feel a thing, she had blacked out before she hit the ground, but she did hear a little voice.

_I'm so sorry my child it had to end like this._

Link awoke soon after Zelda had hit the ground, without a second thought, he was up, holding the bow and firing three consecutive shots of his own to the guardian, with an almighty crash, the last guardian fell to the ground. Link looked around for the princess. Not far from where he was standing, he saw a now blackened dress. He instantly recognised the person lying on the ground.

"Zelda!" He called out. He fell to his knees by the princess. "No, no, no," he muttered under his breath as he noticed she wasn't breathing and her pulse was weakening. Link, felt defeated, the only chance they had at defeating Ganon was now gone. If only if he was faster, or stronger, they wouldn't be here. They would be safe behind the defences of Fort Hateno. It was all his fault. He had failed as her appointed knight, he was supposed to protect her from harm, not cause it. But more importantly, he had failed as a friend.

Link didn't have many friends, in fact, he could count them all on one hand. Although their relationship was rocky at the start (and was still sometimes), they had improved, and if Link dared to stay it, he loved her past what a friend should. Link could only guess what will happen, the world would be bathed in darkness and he would spend most of his time running. Maybe it was a small mercy that Zelda would never have to be exposed to it.

_Master,_

Link looked for the voice and saw the Master Sword glowing.

_She can still be saved, but we must act fast. She needs to go to the Shine of Resurrection._

"But what of Ganon?" Link asked aloud.

_We have little time, but I'm certain that we can conceal him until the time is right._

"Master Link!" Link looked up and saw to Sheikah Warriors make their way over to him.

"Where's Princess Zelda?" One of them asked. Link said nothing but adverted his eyes down to the princess' form on his lap. Both of the warriors staggered back, obviously shocked to see the princess had fallen.

"She must be taken to the Shine of Resurrection." Link spoke softy to the warriors.

"Of course, but what about you?" One asked as he stepped forward to take the princess.

"I'll be fine. I just need to take to Lady Impa about a few things." Link looked down at the princess in his arms. He knew if they didn't her there soon, they would lose her forever. Link brought his head down and rested his own foreheads against the princess'. "Be strong Zelda, you can get through this —I know you can. I'll see you soon." Shakily, Link brought his lips to her forehead and rested there for a moment before he gave her over to the Sheikah Warriors.

Link stayed there and watched the small trio retreat into the distance. Zelda was strong, there was no doubt in his mind that Zelda would survive, his only worry, was if he would survive. Link picked up the Master Sword and put it back into its scabbard on his back. He reached down and held the Bow of Light. Then he carefully, placed it on his back and made his way to Fort Hateno. Through the fighting, himself and Zelda were doing, they had more than less made it to the entrance of the Fort. Link hadn't really been posted here during his time as a knight before he was a Royal Guard, but he knew the lay out of the fort and made it into the infirmary. There was a small mirror in the room and Link made his way over and peeled off his tunic and saw the damage. There were a lot of old scars, most from picking fights with other knights when he was younger. But the thing that was more concerning was half a dozen gashes across his torso. He when looking for some bandages and wrapped them securely around his midsection before wrapping a few over his arms.

He walked out to the courtyard, there was nothing left, it appeared when the guardians had gotten closer to the fort, everyone retreated back into Hateno Village, not far up from the fort. But Link was very lucky to find a horse still there in the courtyard. And to his surprise, the horse was all ready saddled up, the daunting task of making it to Kakariko Village seemed a lot easier. It made him think why they just didn't grab a horse in the first place, but he was quick to banish the thought out of his head, there was no point in thinking what could have been.

* * *

Forcing the horse to run as fast as it could, Link set off to Kakariko Village. On the way, the clouds seemed to clear, Link could clearly see the sun setting over the hills. When he rode into Kakariko Village, there was a quiet, sober feeling filling the village. There were few people walking about, mostly mothers with their children. Every abled-body person was out trying to contain the guardians and help. It was strange to walk up to Impa's house, there were a lack of guards and the front doors were pulled wide open.

"Master Link!" Impa called as he walked through the threshold of the house. "Where's Princess Zelda?"

"A couple of her warriors have taken her to the Shine of Resurrection." Link replied. Impa said nothing, instead she had a pensive look on her face. "I've failed." Link suddenly muttered.

"I'm sorry?" Impa said confused.

"I'm the person who is supposed to protect the princess, but she protected me, so I've failed. I've failed as her appointed knight, I've failed to up hold my knights oath, and I've failed as the Hero of Hyrule." Link brought his head down in shame. Both for failing his duty, and now his emotional out burst in front of Impa.

"Nothing about that matters now." Impa said slowly and stared approaching Link like he was a wild horse. "All you can do is look forward and plan your next move. Which I'm assuming you have,"

"The sword believes we can conceal Ganon until Zelda awakes from the Shine." Link explained.

"Hmm," Impa was deep in thought. Never before has the roles been switched. The Hero always defeated Ganon and the Princess always sealed him away. There were bound to be implications from this. But if the sword had told Link it's possible, I must be. "If that's the case, you must make haste to Hyrule Castle."

"Before I go, can I give you something to give Zelda?" Impa nodded, although her eyebrows rose when he called the princess by name. Link was glad he had managed to find his pouch before he left the Ash Swap. I shuffled through the contents before he found what he was looking for. "I've over heard her conversations with Purah, she might have slight memory loss." Link handed Impa a tunic, riding pants, boots and a jacket. "There are pictures on the Sheikah Slate that will help her, can you guide her for me? Once she has remember who she is could you give her these, this is her own champions outfit."

"Is there anything else?" Impa asked before Link left.

"It might be better for her to learn about what happened to later, you can tell her when you think she's ready." Link didn't wait for Impa to reply, instead he left her house. He had one last stop before he was going to Hyrule Castle.

* * *

Riding through Hyrule made Link sick. Although he was riding in the night, he could finally see the destruction Ganon had caused. What were once thriving villages and settlements were now rubble, it was the only hint that people lived there, in the distance he could see Hyrule Castle, it was over taken by an angry reddish, purplish mass. Link counted himself lucky when he came around Hyrule Castle and was making his way through the Lost Forest, he no longer could see Hyrule Castle, he couldn't see his failure.

He hadn't been to the Korok Forest since he heard the call of the Master Sword and freed it from the stone. He felt like it was the best place for the Bow of Light to be safely hidden until Zelda was able to come for it. The morning was breaking as he past through the forest, Koroks were all coming out of hiding to see Link.

"Great Deku Tree," Link said as he came to a stop on the pedestal, where the Master Sword was. "I need you to keep something safe for me."

"Of course Hero, what it is?" The Deku Tree asked.

Linked pulled the Bow of Light from off his back. "You're the only person in the kingdom, whom I trust to hold it. It was given to her by the Goddess."

"Placed it in the amber." Link did as he was told, the amber slowly harden until it would impossible for the bow to be pulled out. "If I may be so bold… what is it you are planning to do next, Hero?"

"The Master Sword had spoken to me. It seems I still have a duty to fulfil." Link said honestly when he turned to look at the sword on his back. "Great Deku Tree, I ask of you, when she returns, can you please relay this message—"

"Words intended for her would sound much better in the tones of your voice, don't you think?"

Link paused in thought. He supposed the words 'I love you' would sound better from himself and not an ancient tree. "Yes,"

* * *

Link was now at the South Entrance of Hyrule Castle by the docks. He had removed everything from his horse. He gave the horse's coat one last brush and fed him an apple. "I would like to thank you," Link muttered to the horse as they ate an apple from out of his hand. "You've certainly helped me, and now you're free."

Link left the horse and walked through the docks. Link couldn't guess the state of the castle, he could only hope most was still standing. He made his way up one of the secret passage ways and into the library. While being Zelda's appointed knight, he had often spent a lot of time within the library, if she was castle bound. Never before has he seen it in such disarray. There was a hole in the side of the library, books were spread everywhere and tables were turned over. Link carefully walked through the castle. In one hand he had the Master Sword, in the other was the Hylian Shield, the very one the king had gifted to him when he first had gotten the Master Sword.

Among all the destruction, Link was glad he didn't see a single person. He was hopeful most people were able to escape the castle and make it out to other parts of Hyrule. He walked out of on of the many exits and started to make his ascend to the Sanctum. As he was yet to find anyone, Link was hopeful even the King would have made it out. Although, his heart-ached for his King, he would have lost his kingdom and his daughter in the same day. Link's heart stopped when he saw a person lying down, just in front of the entrance to the Sanctum. It was the King.

Link went over and nervously looked over the King. "I'm so sorry I've failed you Your Majesty. But Zelda is safe, but she won't awake for another 100 years. Please, I have no right to ask this of you, but can you please be there for when she wakes up? I would love to, but I'll be busy at the time."

Link walked away from the King and squared his shoulders and walked into the Sanctum. There was malice everywhere, the moment he stepped in he felt it drain the energy out of him. But there was no time for a breather.

"Would you look here." Ganon snarled at Link. "The little hero has come to play. This is a fight you won't win boy."

"It's a good thing I'm not going to fight you." Link turned his back and assumed the pose he had been doing most of the time while guarding the princess. He unsheathed the Master Sword from his back and held facing down with both of his hand on the hilt. Link knew the moment his sunk the sword into the stone, he would be in a 100 year battle with Ganon. He hoped he had the strength. As he drove the sword into the stone, the back of his right hand got warm, he spared a glance and saw the Triforce on it.

"No!" Ganon called out, trying to stop Link. But it was too late, the sword was firmly wedged into the stone and Link disappeared in a brilliance of golden light.

* * *

**_A/N: This has been an idea jumping around my mind for the past while. When I first heard of Legend of Zelda when I was about 8, I thought Zelda was Link. Imagine my shock we I found out we didn't play as Zelda, but Link instead. I might carry this on, it is actually supposed to be a one shot, stand alone. I got the idea to use the Bow of Light in this from another story I read on AO3. I would link it or give you the name, but I have forgotten (please don't shoot me)._ **

**_I would love feedback! I feel like I completely rushed the whole last half of the story. I'm still working on another, so when I get the time I might go back and fill it some more and make some changes. I also hope I did Link and Zelda justice. I have never written a Legend of Zelda fanfic before, and I've only played Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword (and I don't think playing as Link in MarioKart counts either)._ **


	2. Chapter Two

**_Chapter Two_ **

* * *

_Open your eyes…_

_Wake up, Zelda._

Zelda slowly opened her eyes. She had no idea where she was. She had no idea who she was. _'Is Zelda my name?'_ She thought quietly to herself. The liquid around her slowly drained from around her. Grotily, she sat up, she brought a hand up to her face, trying to rub away the sleepiness that had settled in on her. She stood up and walked out of the bath she was in. The room she was in was odd, Zelda could not remember how she ended up in this room, the more she thought about it herself, she couldn't remember anything about herself. The only thing she remembered was a voice, she looked around to try and find the voice, but she was all alone.

The room was casted in a blue hue, there was nothing in the room but a pedestal. As Zelda came closer to the pedestal, it turned blue.

_That is a Sheikah Slate. Take it. It will help to guide you after your long slumber._

There was the voice again. Zelda looked around to try and find the source, but she was still alone. Carefully, she reached for it and pulled it out. It felt familiar, like she had seen it before, but she could remember. Her thoughts were broken as a door opened for her. In the room there were chests. She opened them, inside were clothes, they appeared to be well-worn, but still in good quality. She slipped into the pants and boots, before she pulled the t-shirt over her head. Then the voice came again.

_Hold the Sheikah Slate up to the pedestal. That will show you the way._

_Zelda…_

Doing what the voice said, she placed the Slate onto the pedestal and another door opened, the light from the door was blinding. She smelt the fresh air coming from outside and started to run. Before she could even make it outside, she was faced with a rock face in her way. Zelda stopped, she couldn't remember anything about climbing, but a little voice in the back of her head told her to jump, so she did. Her hands instantly found grooves in the rocks to place her hands and feet. She carefully climbed up the rock face, making sure to place her feet where her hands had been.

Pulling herself up over the rock, she could finally she outside. Zelda ran to the cliff. Zelda was quick to take in her surroundings, there was a huge plain, which then lead up to a mountainous range. The plains were long and green. To her right she could see two peaks in the distance. Sun shone down on the land, warming Zelda to the core. She felt like she was home. But she was even more confused on what home was. The voice came to her once again.

_You are the light —our light— that must shine upon Hyrule once again. Now, go…_

* * *

In the distance she saw an old man wearing a brown cloak, she turned to her right to follow him, perhaps he would give her some answers that were stirring up in her mind. Zelda watched the old man take a seat by a fire, deciding he wouldn't be leaving for a while, Zelda decided to explore more of her surroundings. She didn't really understand the call of the thirst for knowledge, all she understood that was somewhere deep down, she craved for knowledge about the world around her.

She first opened the Sheikah Slate, she browsed through the different pages, she saw there was a massive inventory sections, which was broken up into small sections, a place for runes (there was nothing much on that page, in fact there was nothing at all on that page), a map (like the runes page, there was nothing much on that page, besides a small blue dot), the one the grabbed her attention though was the quests page. It seemed you were able to write down things people told you.

Zelda eagerly opened a new page and saw it was blank with a place where you could type things in, she set it aside as she explored the area. Beneath a tree she saw a mushroom, Zelda ran to it and crouched down to study it, upon studying it further, she realised it was a Hylian Shroom. She quickly made a note of it in the Slate and saved her findings. Walking closer to the old man, Zelda saw a tree branch on the ground and picked it up. Zelda figured it was better to be armed in some way, a tree branch might have not been they way to go, but it was better than nothing.

As she approached the fire, the warmth she received from it made the sun look like a joke. She looked down and saw a baked apple on the ground. She knew it was slightly rude, but she felt hungry after climbing out of the Shine of Resurrection.

"I BEG YOUR PARDON! I do believe that is my baked apple! You can't just go about taking whatever you please!" The voice from the old man startled Zelda and she dropped the apple on the ground.

"I'm so sorry! I was just feeling hungry since I woke up—" Zelda rushed out and bent down to give the apple back to the man.

"Oho ho! Forgive me —I could not resist pulling your leg." The old man chuckled. "Please help yourself. An apple and an open flame make for a succulent treat. It is a bit strange to see another soul in these parts."

"Who are you?" Zelda frowned at the old man as she took a bite from her apple.

"Me? I'll spare you my life story. I'm just an old fool who has lived here, alone, for quite some time now. What brings a bright-eyed young women like you to a place like this?"

"Where are we?" Zelda questioned.

"Answering a question with a question. That is fair enough." The old man mused. "As I cannot imagine our meeting to be a simple coincidence… I shall tell you. This is the Great Plateau. According to legend, this is the birthplace of the entire kingdom of Hyrule. That temple there… Long ago, it was the site of many sacred ceremonies. Ever since the decline of the kingdom 100 years ago, it had sat abandoned in a state of decay."

Zelda looked up behind the old man and saw a crumbling temple in the distance.

"Yet another forgotten entity. A mere ghost of its former self…"

Zelda was quick to bid her farewells from the old, strange man. She couldn't understand the reason why, but she felt like she remembered the man from somewhere. He could have some answers for Zelda. But looking back, she decided she didn't want to deal with him again.

She walked past his little camp, and came across a burnt pile of wood and an axe wedged firmly into the stump next to it. Zelda walked up to the axe, deciding the axe would be more useful than a branch if she was to fight someone. With all the strength she possessed, Zelda tried to pull the axe out of the stump, what felt like hours, she finally freed the axe. She swapped out the branch on her back for the axe. Zelda wasn't completely sure why, but she reached to the pouch behind her and placed the stick in it. Much to her surprise, the stick had fit in with no problems.

Looking to the temple the old man had talked about, Zelda decide to have a look at it. She wasn't sure what she was to do, but that seemed like a good start. Zelda walked down and started to walk up the stairs. Unfortunately, whatever luck Zelda had worn off. There was a Bokoblin at the bottom of the steps. Zelda racked her limited knowledge, she didn't know what to do.

_Don't worry Zelda. I've got something to give to you. I might not always be around, so I give to you, my knowledge._

Suddenly, she was filled with knowledge of different fighting styles and tactics. When the Bokoblin came close to her, she acted on instinct, and with a few well aimed hits from her, the Bokoblin left in a flash of purple smoke. Leaving a horn and its club. She took both into her pouch, with intent to study them at a later date. She made her way into the temple with little effort, she didn't doubt her new fighting skills, but she wanted to avoid conflict at all costs, for whatever reasons, it didn't sit well with her.

There was nothing in the temple, and by the looks of things, nature had finally taken over, making the temple appear in a state of decay. At the alter of the temple, she saw what she assumed was a goddess. For whatever reason, it felt familiar to her. But what she supposed to do there. Pray? For whatever reason, she didn't feel like doing that, so she left the temple. Once she left the temple, the voice echoed again.

_Zelda…_

_Zelda._

_Head for the point marked on the map in your Sheikah Slate._

From where the Slate rested on her hip, Zelda heard a small beeping sound. When she pulled the Sheikah Slate to her, the map function was already opened and there was a small yellow circle in the middle of the map. She made her way to the marker on the map. On her way, Zelda was faced with more Bokoblins, once again, not wanting to fight, she skilfully slipped past and climbed through rocks to find another pedestal, assuming it was exactly like before, she placed the Slate into the slot.

Suddenly, she was brought to her knees as she felt a rumbling coming from beneath her. She looked around and saw everything was passing in a blur as she soared high through the air. She looked around and saw she was high up in the air. Zelda was constantly wondering how to get back down from the now, high tower. She looked to the pedestal and saw new information was being loaded onto the Sheikah Slate. Zelda peered over the Slate and saw a map of the Great Plateau was now loaded on the screen. Zelda carefully pulled the Slate off the pedestal. She started to look around for the tower to try and find a way back down.

_Remember… Try… Try to remember._

_You have been asleep for the past 100 years._

There was the voice again. She turned and saw there was a pulsating light coming from what looked like a castle in the middle of the plains.

_The beast…When the beast regains its true power this world will face its end._

_Now then… You must hurry, Zelda. Before it's too late…_

The castle was now being swirled in a mass of purple, as Zelda watched a beast take over the castle. The golden light that was coming from the castle was shining brighter as the beast tried to take it over. With great reluctance, Zelda pulled her eyes away and begun trying to search for away off the tower.

* * *

Zelda grumbled to herself as she made her way back to her little camp. All she wanted to do was to get off the stupid plateau and explore the kingdom of Hyrule. But it wasn't possible until she gathered four spirit orbs to give to the old man, then he would give her a paraglider for her to get off the plateau. Zelda shook her head and reached for her little pouch. She had explored the Great Plateau a little more, and was now able to write down some of the new finds she had. The first was a Chuchu jelly.

Where ever she had been before her apparent 100 year sleep, she knew jelly was edible. The bright blue colour was inviting to her. Slowly, Zelda brought the jelly to her lips.

"Disgusting," Zelda muttered as she spat out the jelly.

_'_ _Chuchu Jelly: Does not taste nice, might be edible. Perhaps they have a different use.'_

Zelda recorded in the Sheikah Slate. Zelda needed something to wash out the bland, bitter taste of the jelly. Reaching for the pile of sticks next to her, she placed an assortment of vegetables she had found in the surrounding areas. She had managed to find a Stamella Shroom, under another tree. She didn't know what it was, but she was eager to find out. Turning the stick ever so carefully, she cooked the vegetable kabab.

When it was ready, she brought it to her mouth and took a small bite, after learning her lesson with the Chuchu jelly. It was even better than she expected it to be. Within a few bites, she finished off the rest of the vegetable kabab. She felt herself gain a very small burst of energy, she could, but it was soon gone.

_'_ _Stamella Shroom: Tastes nice, gives a little burst of energy. Is nice in a vegetable kabab.'_

Still feeling a little peckish, Zelda threw an apple by the fire and waited until the skin had crisped a little. Like the kabab, it was too gone in a couple of bites. Zelda retreated back to her pile of leaves that were currently acting as her bed roll. She needed to find some actually materials to make a bedroll with, if she could find them on the Great Plateau, she didn't know.

The following afternoon, she had taken out a small Bokoblin camp and managed to grab another club for herself, a shield and a bow with a couple of arrows. Out of the limited weapons she had collected for herself, Zelda felt more comfortable with the bow. With a sharp rock she had found, Zelda craved out a target on the bark of one of the trees, by her own camp. When she held the Book Bow in her hand, she could instantly tell the quality wasn't the best, but she would make do until she could find a better one.

Zelda lined herself up with the target, she pulled the arrow back until it rested by her cheek. Closing her right eye, Zelda lined up the shot. When she was satisfied with her aim, she let the arrow loose. Zelda watched as it flew through the air and made its mark in the middle of the target. Zelda smiled to herself and went over to pull the arrow out of the tree and returned it to the quiver on her back.

A few days had past and Zelda had completed the four shines on the Great Plateau. Zelda was grumbling to herself as she made her way up to the steeple of the Temple of Time.

"Well done there, young one!" The old man smiled at Zelda. "Now, then… the time has come to show you who I truly am. I was King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule. I was… the last leader of Hyrule. A kingdom which no longer exists."

There was a reason somewhere deep in Zelda that she knew this man. He was familiar. Zelda racked her brain, forcing it to remember. She had a shaky memory from when was a child. Zelda listened in amply as the King explained the events leading up to Calamity Ganon. He was in-depth as he explained Hyrule's fall.

"The princess, her appointed knight, and the rest of the Champions were on the brink of sealing away Ganon…But nay…Ganon was cunning, and he responded with a plan beyond our imagining. He appeared from deep below Hyrule Castle, seized control of the Guardians and Divine Beasts and turned them against us. The Champions lost their lives. Those residing in the castle as well. The princess, gravely wounded, collapsed while defending the appointed knight…and thus, the kingdom of Hyrule was devastated absolutely by Calamity Ganon. However, the appointed knight survived to face Ganon alone."

Zelda was assaulted with a vision of sorts, as she saw a small blonde man hold a sword and drove it through the stone.

_Zelda… You are our final hope. The fate of Hyrule rests with you._

"The courageous knight was called Link." Through the talking of the King, he had been maintaining eye contact. It was only now he broke it and he looked down. "And the princess who protected him was none other than you, Zelda. My dear daughter. You fought valiantly when your fate took an unfortunate turn. And then, you were taken to the Shine of Resurrection. Here you now stand revitalised, 100 years later."

Thinking deeper, Zelda was able to solidify the memory from her childhood. When her father, first placed a crown upon her head. She was in a castle, with lords and ladies everywhere, while Zelda was perched upon her mother's lap. 'You will do great things my dear Zelda.' The King had muttered, as he placed the crown on her head. The small crowd within the castle cheered for their new princess.

 _"_ The words of guidance you have been hearing since your awakening are from Link himself. Even now, as he works to restrain Ganon from within Hyrule Castle, he calls out for your help. However, my his power will soon be exhausted. Once that happens, Ganon will freely regenerate himself and nothing will stop him form consuming our land."

Link. Zelda thought to herself. It was nice for her to finally put a name to the voice she had been hearing. If Link was her appointed knight, she would be bound to have multiple memories with him, but none were coming to her.

"Please Zelda, I'm nothing but powerless here, and I have no right to ask this of you, but please save Hyrule." Her father pleaded to Zelda.

"Where am I supposed to start? I can't do this alone, father." Zelda desperately wanted to help, but she wasn't sure if she would be enough to defeat Ganon.

"I suggest…that you make your way east, out to one of the villages in the wilderness. Follow the road out to Kakariko Village. There you will find the elder, Impa. She will tell you more about the path that lies ahead. Consult the map on your Sheikah Slate for the precise location of Kakariko Village. Make your way past the two summits of the Dueling Peaks. From there, follow the road as it proceeds north." The king explained. "Remember my sweet Zelda, I love you. And I will always be by your side. You have the spirit of you mother within you, you can do anything."

"How am I supposed to make it off the Great Plateau?" Zelda questioned. She had tried before, but she had fallen into a mist and she had ended right back upon the Great Plateau.

"I should probably give you this then." The King reached behind him and passed Zelda the paraglider. "Now make haste! You are the hero Zelda, and your knight needs to be saved."

"Thank you," Zelda said honestly as her father handed her the paraglider. "I love you."

* * *

The wind blew through Zelda's hair as she flew off the Great Plateau. She was free! But there was over-hanging burden of saving Hyrule, know resting upon her shoulders. She had no idea where to start other than seeking out Impa as her father had told her to do. She landed with a soft thud on the dirt road just below the Great Plateau. She searched the land for the two peaks, to start making her way to Kakariko Village.

The path was a long one, she would love to have a horse right about now. It would make the journey less time consuming. But the perks of exploring the fields out weighted the need for a horse. She had taken many samples of flowers with her so she could study them later, when she eventually stopped for the night.

On her path to the Dueling Peaks, Zelda had stumbled upon a village. The villages laid in ruins, only the bare foundations were still standing. She carefully walked through the village, from her past experiences on the Great Plateau, she knew there would be a chest somewhere in the ruins. Activating the magnesis, the screen of the Sheikah Slate turned pink as it searched of magnetic objects. She had found the chest, upon opening it, she found an opal. In a way she felt incredibly guilty, especially after learning the demise of Hyrule, it was like she was grave robbing. Zelda specifically shunned the thought out of her mind and pocketed the opal. She had found a rusty board-sword in the ruins as well.

Zelda could see the sun dipping over the horizon and decided to set up camp. She was quick to find some branches for to make a fire. To pull one of the only pieces of flint she had, she struck it was a stone nearby and allowed the wood to catch fire. Grabbing a stick from the pile next to her, Zelda placed on of the fish she had caught and started to roast it over the fire. Once it was done she ate quickly and threw the stick into the fire.

The night started to get colder, so Zelda dug out her warm doublet and pulled it over her head. The thick lining of the doublet instantly made her feel warmer. Zelda reached into her pouch again and fished out the samples of the flowers she had found upon leaving the Great Plateau.

_'_ _Hyrule Herb: Green in colour, has a strong scent, might be good for medicinal purposes.'_

_'_ _Armoranth: Purple like flower, feels tough to hold, might be edible.'_

_'_ _Hearty Radish: Root vegetable, red in colour, looks like a flower.'_

She typed it all into the Sheikah Slate. She was yet to find anything interesting. Most of the things she had been finding were plants and flowers. She had record a few monsters she had come across, but most of them were Bokoblins. The sun now had sunken well below the horizon, and there were star littered across the sky. Zelda decided needed a break, and powered down the Sheikah Slate before placing it on her hip and wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her chin on her knees. She turned her gaze to the fire, where she was soon lost in the beauty of the flames.

* * *

Zelda was happy. While on her way to Kakariko Village, she had stopped off at the Dueling Peaks Stables and managed to tame a wild horse. It was a patchy white and brown mare, who was incredibly gentle to Zelda. She gave her horse the name Nay. There was supposed to be more to that name, but she couldn't remember the rest of it, Zelda only hoped it would come with her memories.

Upon riding the trail to Kakariko Village, Zelda had stumbled on a larger-than-normal Korok. His name was Hestu. She helped him and promised to give any Korok seeds she found to him—not that Zelda knew what a Korok seed was.

When Zelda rode into Kakariko Village, it was a small quant village nestled in-between the valley. There were few houses in the village. But Zelda didn't think much of it, like seeing the stable, it was nice to see that Hyrule had recovered from Calamity Ganon. Zelda pulled out her Sheikah Slate and saw the yellow pinpoint on her map was at the bottom of the village, inside the big house. Zelda dismounted her horse and led it through the small village until she made it to the bottom. She tied the rains around on of the low-hanging branches of an apple tree. Making her way to the two guards stationed at the bottom gate of the house.

"I'm here to see Impa." Zelda told the guards, hoping they would lead her the right way.

"Is that a Sheikah Slate?!" The pair of guards exclaimed together. Zelda had to give them credit because they were quick to regain their composer.

"Lady Impa is just in that house there." One of the guards said pointing behind him.

Zelda thanked the guards and started to walk up to the house. Zelda carefully opened the doors of the house. Sitting in front of her was an older lady.

"…So you're finally awake. It has been quite the long time…Princess Zelda." The lady started. Zelda could assume it was Impa. "I am much older now, but you remember me, don't you?"

* * *

**_A/N: Ok I lied. I had originally intend this just to be a one-shot, but I just had so many other ideas for this story. I'm mainly going to be covering the main quests of the game. If I was to do it all, it would take forever. There is going to be a few more scenes added in to make the game more Zelda. I realise its very farfetched for Link to both give Zelda all of his knowledge about fighting, but its a fanfic. I tried to have Zelda have her curious nature, we she likes researching things. I'm hoping for this story to have only around 5 chapters._ **

**_I'll see you all in the next chapter!_ **


	3. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

* * *

_Zelda…_

_Be on your guard. Ganon's power grows…it rises to its peak under the hour of a Blood Moon. By its glow, the aimless spirits of monsters that were slain in the name of light return to flesh._

_Zelda…please be careful._

Zelda shivered the first time she saw the Blood Moon rise. She heard Link calling to her, so she heeded his warning and spent a night in on of the stables nearby. Although Zelda did groan in the morning when she realised that most of the monsters she had killed, had all came back to life. It wasn't fair, couldn't she just catch a break? Zelda shook the thought out of her head. And started to get ready for the day.

She slipped into way she dubbed as her own Champions Tunic. On her way to Zora's Domain, she ended up recovering a memory. It was hazy at best, but she remember knighting Link. She had stumbled upon the memory after claiming the Central Tower. She ran back to Impa, and as promised, Impa handed her the outfit she was wearing now.

Zelda pulled out the Sheikah Slate to see how far she was from Zora's Domain. She had no idea on what expect when she had made it to the Domain. All the travellers she had talked to in passing, had told her to avoid it. Apparently the Zora people living there weren't too friendly towards Hylians. Zelda could only hope they would make an exemption for her, after all she need their help if she was going to take back Vah Ruta.

One of the little things Zelda was glad for was the new camera feature on the Slate, it made researching for her a lot easier. Purah had changed the feature of the Hyrule Compendium for her, so Zelda could add in her own notes about the creatures, monsters, plants and weapons she found. Because of the compendium, she was now able to become a better cook, as when she took a picture of an item she didn't know, she could learn what to do with it.

"Morning Ember!" Zelda called out to the stable owner.

"Zelda? Right?" Ember asked when she greeted her. Zelda nodded. "What can we do for you today?"

"Can I take Nay please?"

"Of course! Just let me sort the paper work!" Ember replied enthusiastically.

In a matter of moments, one of the stablehands brought Nay out and Zelda reached into her pocket and pulled out an apple for her. Zelda mounted her horse, and she gently dug her ankles into Nay's side and her horse started to trot down the road. Zelda had the goal to make it to the Wetland Stable by nightfall, in hopes to trade with Beedle and cook a few items to last her until Zora's Domain.

What she didn't count for was to find other shine on the way. She had to pull Nay to the side so she could try and swim across to the island in the middle of a river. As Zelda came closer towards the shine, she noticed there was flowers surrounding it. She walked through the shallow water and towards a lady standing by the shine.

"Hey!" The lady called out. "What do you think you're doing?! You must not harm the flowers!" Zelda looked down and saw she was standing on the edge of the flower bed.

"Sorry!" Zelda called back. She thought the lady was being a little dramatic, the flowers will grow back. Zelda walked far from the flowers and towards the lady standing there. Zelda looked down and noticed a swirling path in the grass that lead her to the shine.

"I planted flowers around the shine. Please be careful where you step. You don't want to hurt them, do you?" The lady asked sweetly.

"Of course not! I just want to make it to the shine in the middle. Is that alright?" Zelda questioned.

"Oh I don't care about the shine. Just be careful of the flowers please, I worked so hard on them." The lady replied sweetly again.

Zelda nodded and carried on walking through the maze between the flowers, trying to make her way to the shine. Two Chuchu's come and tried to attack Zelda. Zelda dodged the attack and carried on to the shine. Zelda watched as the shine appeared on the Sheikah Slate.

* * *

It had started to rain, just as Zelda past the Wetland Tower. If there was anything Zelda learnt on her travels, was she hated rain. It turned the ground soft and soaked her to the bone. In a poor attempt to try and stay warm, Zelda had thrown on her Hylian cloak she had brought back in Kakariko Village. Thinking back on the decision now, Zelda knew she should have kept it dry until she was under some sort of shelter, so it didn't get soaked. Lucky, she still had her warm doublet, so she could easily change when she was under shelter.

As she came to the bottom of Zora's Domain, she was wowed by the sheer beauty of it. The luminescent blue bridges looked amazing, the architecture was incredible. All of it seemed familiar to Zelda, like she had been here before. But as Hyrule's Princess, she had probably been here more times then she could count.

"Say, hey there!" I heard someone call out over the rain. "Young one! Up top! Above you!" I looked above myself to see a Zora jump down from the top of the bridge. "Pardon the entrance, but you're a Hylian, aren't you? I hoping perhaps you'd have a moment to talk… Aha! A Hylian! Yes, I knew it! Oh pardon me, I'm Sidon, the Zora Prince! And what is your name?"

"Zelda," She replied to the enthusiastic Zora Prince. After everything, it was refreshing to see someone with such enthusiasm.

"Hmm, though I cannot shake the feeling that I have heard it somewhere before…"

Zelda started her long walk up to Zora's Domain. As she had been travelling alone for quite sometime now, she was always on her guard. So when a Lizalfo attacked her, she was quick with her reflexes and fired two arrows after one another, landing straight in the eye of the Lizalfo. Ever since she had found her first bow back on the Great Plateau, Zelda had been constantly practicing, trying to perfect her aim and technique. While Zelda had been grateful to Link for giving her the basic knowledge on how to fight, she welcomed some of the teachings of the Sheikah warriors in Kakariko Village. They showed her the usefulness of a sneak attack. Although Zelda felt dirty using a sneak attack on monsters, she couldn't deny the usefulness of it.

As she made her way up the trail to Zora's Domain, she was touched that Sidon was constantly checking up on her. Seeing if she was fairing alright. Zelda made her way up the path and through the rocks, as she got closer to Zora's Domain, she felt the raining getting harder. When she walked across the final bridge, she was able to see the Zora's Domain in all of its splendour.

"Whoa! I've been waiting for you Zelda! Welcome! Behold the pride of my people, Zora's Domain! Now I shall introduce you to the king. Hurry, this way!" Sidon had come running up to Zelda, and before she could even disagree, Sidon had turned on his heel and expected her to follow him.

From a few books she had read while she was at Impa's, she had learned about the Zora, more importantly how they matured slower and had a longer lifespan than Hylians and Sheikah alike. She could feel some of the older Zora looking at her with distaste as she followed Sidon through the Domain.

They walked up a grand staircase and there in the throne room sat the Zora King.

"I see you have found a Hylian, Sidon." The king turned to look at the Prince.

"Indeed I have. She claims her name is Zelda." Sidon moved out of the way for the Zora King to look at Zelda.

"My dear Zelda!" The king bellowed. "It has been years since I've last seen you!" Zelda looked confused at the king. "I sense you don't remember who I am, I'm King Dorephan of Zora's Domain."

"I'm sorry you Highness, but after my 100 year slumber, I have seemed to lost all of my memories." Zelda told Dorephan. She bowed down her head.

"Not to worry my dear! I assume you don't remember my daughter, Mipha, either?"

"No sorry," Zelda apologised.

"Perhaps Sidon could show you around the Domain tomorrow." Dorephan said to himself with a hand on his chin. "Nevertheless, lets get you settled in for the night. Sidon would be more than happy to show you to your room."

With a gentle hand on Zelda's forearm, Sidon lead Zelda out of the throne room, and through multiple halls.

"My room is just across the hall if you need anything, Princess." Sidon bowed and left Zelda alone in her new room.

Zelda, turned and walked through the room. There was nothing much in the room, but that did not mean it wasn't extravagant. The room was well fitted in with the blue colour scheme the Zoras had. In her room was a large bed, a desk and a small dresser with a mirror over it. Now that Zelda was out of the rain, she removed her Champion's outfit and laid it on the chair that was tucked into the desk. She grabbed her Hylian trousers and warm doublet, before she climbed into the bed.

Zelda's morning was slow. She was awake before dawn, but after she had gotten changed and had breakfast, Prince Sidon had come to her door and followed through on a quick tour of the Domain. Their last stop on the little tour was Mipha's statue in the middle of the Domain.

Zelda paused for a minute, as she gazed upon the statue in front of her, she was suddenly shown a memory.

* * *

Zelda was shown to be standing atop one of the bigger waterfalls surrounding Zora's Domain. She noticed it wasn't rain, in fact, it was the complete opposite. The Domain was casted in a golden glow coming from the late afternoon sun.

"So Princess, may I ask who the other chosen Champions are?" Mipha said softly as she looked down the waterfall.

"Goron vigilance, Daruk. Rito confidence, Revali. Gerudo spirit, Urbosa." Zelda turned to tell Mipha. "And also, the Hylian with the sword that seals the darkness, Link."

Mipha turned away from the Hylian Princess and casted her gaze across the Domain.

"When Link was little," Mipha started. "He often came to the Domain during the summer. He was quite reckless, often he would try and pick fights with the older knights, more often than not he would win. Of course he was covered head to toe in scratches, naturally, I healed them for him." Mipha told Zelda with longing in her voice.

"Interesting," Zelda said bringing her hand to rest on her chin.

"Interesting?" Mipha asked confused. "I'm not sure I understand."

"I haven't had much conversation with Link. If I do, its often one-sided, I'm glad to know a little more about him." Zelda replied honestly. Mipha turned to face Zelda, the Zora Princess noticed a slight scowl on her face.

"He wasn't alway like that you know." Mipha said. "He was quite the talkative boy when he came—"

"Mipha!" Zelda carefully walked to the edge of the waterfall, and saw a smaller, child-like Zora had interrupted them.

"Sidon! Hurry and swim up here!" Mipha called back. Zelda forced her eyes to focus more and saw the little Zora in the water was Mipha's younger brother.

"Mipha, perhaps he is still to young to swim up this big waterfall." Zelda worried.

"One day, Princess I must leave him, to face my fate with Ruta." Mipha gave Zelda no chance to reply as Mipha jumped off the ledge and started to slide down the waterfall.

In a matter of moments, Mipha landed at the bottom of the waterfall and managed to get Sidon on her back as she rode back up the waterfall. When she reached the top, she flew high into the sky with Sidon still firmly in her hand. She gently placed her younger brother back on the ground.

"Sweet Sidon, Should fate ever part us, I'm counting on you to protect our beloved home from harm. Understood." Mipha brought a hand to cup her brothers cheek.

Sidon said nothing, perhaps he was trying to understand the weight of the words Mipha had just told him, but eventually, he nodded.

"I believe in you. Now, should we try one more time?" Mipha said changing the subject quickly.

Zelda watched the two Zora royals smile at each other before Mipha wrapped her brother in a hug. Her heart had filled with love. There were many times in her life when she wanted a younger sibling to run about the castle with. But the chances of that ever happening were slim, when she was little, her mother had passed away of an unknown illness. It was then when her father forced her to pray to the goddess in a vigorous routine.

* * *

"Princess," Zelda was brought out of her thoughts with a gentle hand on her arm. Zelda's eyes followed the arm up to the face of Sidon. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yes," Zelda replied. "I just remembered something about Mipha." She smiled at the Zora Prince.

Once again grumbling to herself, Zelda climbed to the top of Ploymus Mountain, the peak of the mountain, Shatterback Point, was home a Lynel. Muzu had begrudgingly told her the location of the shock arrows she would need to take back control of Vah Ruta. It was a shock to Zelda, she had never faced a Lynel before. She had heard they were ruthless and savage monsters, that alone wanted her turn back around and walk back down the mountain.

Zelda had already came too far up the mountain to turn around now, despite the fear she felt. She was acutely aware she could have swim up the waterfalls to reach it quicker, but the Zora Amour was supposed to be a gift for Link from Mipha, so Zelda didn't right wearing it. Walking up the mountain, Zelda saw a little alcove, she was quick to get changed into the blue and white Sheikah Amour she had brought way back in Kakariko Village. You could call Zelda a pacifist, she liked avoiding all violent encounters as much as she could, Zelda was hoping she would be able to quickly collect the 20 shock arrows she needed and not have to engage the Lynel.

It was funny enough, as this was the one time that Zelda was wrong. After grabbing the first arrows that were embedded in a nearby tree, Zelda turned around quick enough for her to avoid the shock arrow the Lynel had sent her way. Zelda dove behind the rock to try and calm her nerves and to try and formulate a plan to try and either defeat the Lynel or grab all 17 remaining arrows she needed. The former seemed impossible as she heard the Lynel stomp around its territory, trying to find her.

Equipping her own Travellers Bow with a few ice arrows, Zelda bravely poked her head around the corner of the rock. To Zelda's luck, the Lynel had noticed her straight away. As quick as she dared, Zelda drew back the drawstring and fired her own arrows at the Lynel. There was a small window where the Lynel was dazed by the shots fired by Zelda. So Zelda was quick to equip herself with a solider's broad-sword and shield. She ran to the Lynel and with all the might she could muster, Zelda struck the Lynel, before falling back and holding her shield up. The Lynel in question responded with a fast downward strike of his sword. Zelda flipped backwards, and as she did so, she saw an opening and unleashed a flurry of her own attacks. She jumped back once again, and raised her shield to go on the defence. The Lynel swung his sword, each time Zelda met the strike with her shield.

Zelda could feel herself getting tried, and knew she had to finish the fight before the Lynel finished her. She reached behind her and grabbed her bow that was sitting on her back. Placing an arrow into the bow, Zelda pulled back hard on the drawstring, all at the same time, carefully lining up her shot. She released the arrow, and with a twang, the arrow flew true and landed right in the eye of the Lynel. In a magnificent flash of purple smoke, the Lynel disappeared, leaving behind a nice stack of shock arrows.

* * *

After regaining control of Vah Ruta, Zelda was now left chopping down trees. The Zora people were more then thankful to Zelda for freeing Vah Ruta from Ganon's control. She was quick to try and not take all the glory for herself, she did try to give Sidon some credit as he did help her board the Divine Beast after all, instead he refused to be praised and allowed Zelda to receive all the praise given to her. Dorephan had been kind enough to gift Zelda Mipha's trident. And even upon freeing Vah Ruta, Mipha had bestowed Mipha's Grace on Zelda.

The reason for her chopping down some trees was simple enough, she was getting ready to buy a small house in Hateno Village. She had stumbled upon the decrepit house as she was making her way up to the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab to see Purah and help her with some research into Ancient Sheikah Technology. Bolson, the man who was taking her down the house made her an offer, 3000 rupees and 30 bundles of chopped wood. Zelda ever thought about buying a house until now, she supposed it would be nice to own a place of her own, instead of constantly staying in the stables and out in the wild.

With an almighty swing of her axe, Zelda brought down a small pine tree outside the Serenne Stable. Throughout most of the early morning, Zelda had cleared out the trees surrounding the small stable. If she counted it right, Zelda should only need two more bundles of wood before she had enough had she could return to Hateno Village. The next half an hour was filled of Zelda precisely measure the length of the log, and cutting it to size. Must to Zelda's delight, the log was the right amount she need to bring her total of wood bundles to 30. Zelda tied some string around the bundles and placed them in her pouch.

Zelda turned to go back into the stable to see if she could do some trading with Beedle. Unluckily, Beedle wasn't in the stable yet. Zelda figured she could always trade with some of the store owners in Hateno Village, so using the Sheikah Slate, Zelda wrapped to the shrine in Hateno Village.

Upon arriving, Zelda was quick to find Bolson and gave him the rupees and the bundles of wood. With much gusto, Bolson handed the keys to the small house to Zelda.

"Thank you so much." She smiled at Bolson.

"It was no trouble dear~" Bolson smiled back to Zelda.

Zelda walked in and saw the house was bare. The only thing that was in the house was a bed up in a loft. Zelda was able to grab the Sheikah Slate and take note of the time, later, she would find all the furniture she needed to fill the house.

The next day saw Zelda handing the last of her rupees over to Bolson for him to finish up the rest of the house. She had asked, instead of a ridiculous amount of weapon stands, Zelda had asked for a few more bookshelves and less weapon stands. When it was all completed, Zelda was quick to put up Mipha's trident in on of the four weapon stands. After that, Zelda was more than happy to add her limited books she had gain on her travels to the shelves, she hoped to fill the shelves with books.

* * *

Over the next few days, Zelda had made it to the Woodland Stables, just south of the Woodland Tower. One of the many people within the stables had told Zelda of the Lost Forest. The idea of the forest made Zelda excited. Even when she was atop the Woodland Tower, she could only see a misty covering the forest. So her curiosity had decided her next place to visit.

As she walked up to the woods, the mist started to see in, it was frightening in a way. It gave Zelda the spooks. She constantly felt the wind change direction as well. Zelda passed under a crumbling stone arch and saw a single flame and touch sitting on the ground. She walked around it, studying it. There would have to be a reason why it was there. Looking up, Zelda saw the embers of the flames follow the direction of the wind. Lighting the touch, Zelda was set following the direction of the embers. As she past through the forest, it changed. It was no longer the spooky trees and the mist, instead it had cleared up, the forest was now all green and the sun was now shining into the forest.

Zelda noticed all the little Koroks around the place, so this was were they lived. Most of them looked to scared to approach her and where hiding in the shrubs. Zelda looked forward and saw a massive tree in the middle of the forest, within the tree was a mass of orange amber, in the amber looked like there was a bow concealed within it.

Though she wasn't completely sure at the time, the bow called for Zelda, like it was singing for her. She took cautious steps towards the bow and tried to touch it. Zelda was startled as she saw the big tree wake up.

"Ah, Princess," The tree spoke. "After 100 years, I'd nearly given up hope on seeing you again." The tree spoke softly.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the Great Deku Tree." The Deku Tree spoke softly. "You are after the Bow of Light, are you not?"

"Yes, when I came here, I felt the bow calling to me."

"You wouldn't be the first to hear a call." Zelda looked confused at the Deku Tree. "Just over 100 years ago, the Hero of Hyrule heard the call of the Master Sword. Although he was tested before he could wield the sword, I am not sure if the Bow of Light would do the same, so I would be cautious before I would pull it from the tree."

The moment she placed her hand on the bow, Zelda felt her strength slip away from her, but she fought through it. It had taken all of Zelda's strength not to collapse on her knees. After what felt like hours, she felt the bow give, and with all her remaining strength, Zelda freed the Bow of Light from the amber.

After she had freed the bow, Zelda was shown the full hospitality of the Koroks. As it turned out, they had planned for her arrival. They had prepared a bed for her—one she could not wait to sleep in, a mushroom shop and a little general store.

Later in the night, Zelda had made it into the bed made of leaves for her, she would have thought it would have been one of the most uncomfortable beds in the world, but it was surprisingly on of the most comfortable beds she had ever slept on. Reaching for her pouch, Zelda pulled out a journal she had brought with her from Hateno Village.

Although Zelda still hadn't regained all of her memories, she knew she had struggled with awakening her powers that had been passed down through her bloodline. To help the next Princess for whose task it would be to seal the darkness, Zelda decided to write a journal.

_'_ _Today I managed to free the Bow of Light. It feels familiar, but I cannot figure out where I have seen it before. I'm currently staying within the Great Deku Tree, the Koroks have made me feel at home within there own little world. I still haven't heard anything from the Goddess. Although I'm still unsure what I need to hear from her. I'm feeling like the same doubt I had about myself 100 years ago is coming back. It's scaring me. Link is still fighting in Hyrule Castle, but without the power from the Goddess, he could be fighting for another 100 years. I feel like a failure when I comes to my own destiny. I feel like I'm the reason why we had lost over 100 years ago.'_

* * *

_**A/N: Lol I had wanted this to be up yesterday, but I ended up sleeping in. There is only certain aspects I will be covering from each of the Divine Beasts, otherwise we will be here forever. We are only half way through and we still have lots to cover. And who else finds both the blood moon and the Hylian Homeowner quest annoying? Just me? Ok then. I'll aim for the next chapter to be out tomorrow sometime, I'm not sure when though.** _


	4. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

* * *

Zelda was clanking her way back down Death Mountain, reluctantly wearing the Flamebreaker amour set. She had just regained control of Vah Rudania. The Gorons seemed happy enough with the outcome, happy enough that they had a feast in her honour. Although she didn't remember much of it as she had one sip of the Goron Whiskey and she was gone. The things she remembers of the night were filled with laughter, so the night couldn't have ended that badly.

One of her complete highlights of the time spent up Death Mountain was meeting Yunobo. After gaining most of her memories, Zelda realised she wasn't particularly close with Daruk, but that fact alone wasn't going to stop her from making new bonds with everyone who helps her. Another highlight was using the Bow of Light, she face Fireblight Ganon with little difficulty. Although a down side to the bow was it could take down a few monsters in a single shot, but the power of the bow didn't last for long. It would take a few solid hours for the bow to recharge.

Zelda stopped at the stables just below Death Mountain, after dealing with another Divine Beast, all she wanted to do is sleep for the next week and a half. The never ending quests, puzzles and fights she had to put up with the past two beasts, always left her completely tired. Zelda was acutely aware of the two other Divine Beasts remaining. There was one near the Rito Village and the other deep in the desert by Gerudo Town. The very thought of travelling across Hyrule like that made Zelda shudder, she considered herself lucky when she could travel through Hyrule by the shines she had either completed, or activated, she had even had her own horse, Nay.

As soon as Zelda approached the stable, she hid behind a nearby tree and changed into her usual Champion getup. When Impa had given it to her, she was surprised on how good the fit was. She supposed it was made for her, but after 100 years, she would have thought it would have shrunk or she would have out grown it. But Purah had explained the stasis they had but on her, froze her body completely, allowing her not to age during her 100 year slumber. She was wondering if Link had aged at all in the 100 years, would she recognise him from her memories, or would he have changed?

When Zelda thought of Link, she often felt guilt. Guilt because she didn't do enough last time, guilt because she was taking too long. She could never quite escape the feeling of, it should be her facing Ganon now, not Link. Link should be the one on this journey, there would be no doubt in her mind that Link would have already defeated Ganon. Impa, Purah, Prince Sidon, and now, Yunobo, have been trying to convince her otherwise. She couldn't believe how much faith they all had in her.

Zelda knew she was cruel for shaking the thought of Link out of her mind. If Zelda carried on to think about it, she would end up crying, she couldn't count how many times she had cried into her pillows, or waking up crying from a nightmare she had. Zelda knew the only way to stop this, is to defeat Ganon and free Link. Maybe when she would free Link, she would free herself.

The cheery stablehands smiled and waved at Zelda as she made her way to the stables. Walking straight past everyone in the stables, only stopping to exchange pleasantries with everyone, Zelda made her way to the cooking pot outside the stables. Zelda whipped up a chicken curry with some of the Goron Spice she had brought when she was in the city. The flavour scarily matched the environment that the Gorons lived in. It was smoky, yet sweet, it had a fiery taste, yet it didn't burn your mouth.

* * *

During her travels, Zelda had heard a lot about Hyrule Castle. Naturally, she was curious. Zelda had suspicions that she could regain some of her memories if she were to go to the castle. After all, she was a princess and she had no doubt in her mind that she would find clues and perhaps answers to some of her questions.

Zelda had talked to a few travellers, mostly treasure hunters, and they had all suggested the south entrance through the docks was a good place to get into the castle. So that was Zelda's next place of interest.

Before she headed to the castle, she made her way to see Robbie up in the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab. Purah had told her of Robbie and before she set to go up Death Mountain, she decided to see him. She needed to stock up on ancient arrows. Zelda had recorded both in her journals and the Sheikah Slate, guardians went down a lot easier with the use of ancient weapons. Zelda theorised it was because they were of the same time, that the ancient weapons were perhaps designed to take down guardians. Regardless, Zelda knew she needed to work on her parries. There were too many times when she had been saved by Mipha's Grace, after she either parried too soon or too late, and had been caught and sent sky-high with the beam from a guardian.

Very reluctantly, Zelda had used the Zora Amour set (she had found the rest of it throughout Zora Domain) to swim through the docks and onto the piers. Zelda was quick to take out the Lizalfos by the piers. She walked up the stairs on her right. She couldn't see all that well, so with the use of a fire arrow, she shot it at a pile of wood so she could see better. Suddenly, the ground started to shake and a shrine popped up from under the ground. Zelda was more than pleased with her finds, it meant getting to the castle was a lot easier now, she didn't have to swim for miles to get there or have to dodge all off the guardians still about the castle.

Opening the Sheikah Slate, Zelda was quick to activate the shrine. She had full intent to come back later and complete the shrine. When she opened the Slate, Zelda noticed the map had changed and instead of a map of Hyrule, there was a map of the castle. She saw the exit and entry points of the castle. She saw a bright orange orb at the top of the castle, she was sure it was Ganon. Zelda knew she wouldn't be facing Ganon today. She still needed to get control of two other Divine Beasts, more importantly, she still needed the Goddess' Powers, so she could finally seal away Ganon.

Exploring the castle was easier than she expected. With the use of the Bow of Light, the ancient arrows and Daruk's Protection, made it harder for guardians to land a hit on her. Zelda was now scaling up the side of one of the towers, she really had no idea why, but she had a feeling she needed to be up there. Zelda had placed her Climbing Bandana on in hopes she would climb faster, before her stamina ran out, with one mighty pull, Zelda pulled herself up onto the bridge. She looked around and saw was looked like a study of sorts. She looked around and realised it was her study. She had vague memories of sitting hunched over books on all different topics, taking notes and recording her theories into multiple journals. Zelda saw a book on the desk, it was close, upon inspecting the book, Zelda realised it was one of her research journals.

Zelda was about to walk across the bridge and realised a Skywatcher Guardian was scoping the area, she waited until it passed over the bridge and then ran across. When she was running across the bridge, Zelda realised she had seen this exact place before and realised it was in the Sheikah Slate as Zelda went to check the Sheikah Slate to see if she was right, Zelda was confronted with another memory.

This memory was different from the others. Zelda had noticed most of the other memories were centred around Link, and her journey with Link and how their relationships changed, from acquaintances, to friends and perhaps something more. In the memory she notice when Link instantly kneeled, like he before someone important. Looking away from Link, Zelda noticed her father, the king had made his way over to her. The scene of her father reprimanding her left a bitter taste in her mouth. She felt the disappointment and disgrace flood through the Zelda of the past.

When Zelda had come out of the memory, she was quick to check her surroundings and saw the same Skywatcher Guardian come back around, swiping the area for intruders. Zelda ran across the bridge and saw there was a bedroom below her, Zelda climbed down into the bedroom, she spared a glance behind her to see if anyone or anything was following her.

Like in her study, Zelda remembered this room. It was her bedroom. The room was far from liveable now. Debris from the castle had fallen all through the room. The bed was parts of the castle on it, the rugs and fabrics in the room were reduced to scraps of fabrics and the bookshelf, which no doubt held a lot of books in the past was broken and missing a lot of books. Much to Zelda's horror, she saw a Sliver Moblin in the room. She had only faced a Sliver Bokoblin once, never before had she faced the Sliver Moblin. She knew it would go down without a fight, so Zelda was quick to equip herself with the Bow of Light and aimed a shot straight at the monsters head. The monster disappeared in a flash of purple light and left behind a few monster parts and a topaz. Looking around the room, Zelda took whatever things she thought might help her. She had found a few books on the bookshelf that caught her attention, they were ranging from the history of Hyrule to a book completely filled with the old Sheikah Technology. She had taken the Royal Guards Bow on the mantel of the fireplace. Zelda thought quietly to herself if Link had ever owned one during his time of being her appointed knight.

Before Zelda left, she caught glance of a desk in a small nook of her bedroom. The desk was tidy and neat (when Zelda looked past all of the vines and rocks spewed across the top), she looked and there was a simple leather bound book. There was nothing on the book to make it look any significant. She thumbed through the book and realised it was her diary. There were multiple entries, throughout the diary, like research she had found previously, she placed it in her pouch and intended to read it at a later date, perhaps she could gain a better understanding of herself from the book.

* * *

It had been a few weeks since Zelda had gone through Hyrule Castle and taken a few things that she thought would help with her memories. She had quickly made her way back to Hateno Village she had placed the books from her bedroom and her research journal in the bookshelf. Zelda carried her diary around with her, she was conflicted whether she should open the diary. The Zelda she was now and the Zelda of the past were too different people. Zelda felt like she was invading someone's personal privacy. Zelda was also scared, very scared, she was afraid of what she might find if she was to read the diary, she was scared of finding out how she used to be. From her own scattered memories, she got the impression her and Link didn't get along all that well until much later in their relationship. Did she treat everyone like that? Only her diary either confirm or deny it.

She was now en route towards Gerudo Town. She had spent the past few weeks in Rito Village helping out with Vah Medoh. She had met on of the Rito Warrior's Teba, who helped her to actually get to the Divine Beast. She was grateful of the hospitality that the Rito had given to her, they had even gifted her with Revali's Bow. Zelda recalled her brief conversation with the Rito Champion, to say the least, he was shocked to find out she had even made it up to the Divine Beast, and even more shocked to see her defeat Windblight Ganon.

After Zelda freed Vah Naboris, she would only have a few shrines to complete, then she could prepare to bring down Ganon. As she made her way closer into Gerudo, Zelda noticed there were more lone travellers, she instantly knew they were Yiga Footsoliders in hiding, trying to get the jump on her. Zelda had found out the hard way, when she hoped she was helping a weary traveller.

It had taken a few days, but Zelda had made it to Gerudo Town, he had down five heat resistant elixirs on her way here, Zelda was desperately hoping to find some appropriate clothing for the heat in the town. To her luck, as she walked into the Vai-only town, and there was a shop selling a set of more desert-approved clothes. Zelda walked over and paid the amount for these without a second thought, she was quick to put it on. The outfit itself was quite cooling. Zelda was instantly cooler from putting the clothes on, however, she was a little nervous for showing _that_ much skin. Although, when Zelda thought about it, she woke up in something, just less than what she was wearing.

The night were significantly cooler than the days. Zelda was glad she decided to splurge on staying in an inn within the small town—it was one of her better ideas she had. She had the whole place to herself. Zelda decided that now was the perfect time to start reading her old diary. Zelda was very careful opening the book—more careful than when she first picked it up in her old bedroom, she was scared that the book might fall apart and the hope of finding out more about herself would all fall apart as well.

_'_ _After meeting with the Champions, I left to research the ancient technology, but nothing of note came of my research. The return of Ganon looms—a dark force taunting us from afar. I must learn all I can about the relics so we can stop him. If the fortune-teller's prophecy is to be believed, there isn't much time left... Ah, but turning over these thoughts in my head puts me ill at ease. I suppose I should turn in for the night._

_P.S. Tomorrow my father is assigning HIM as my appointed knight…'_

In the briefest of moments, Zelda saw herself standing in the castle. All five of the champions where standing behind her, with as much grandness her father could muster. She was eager to learn that she had skilfully crafted all of the champions iconic blue shawls, scarfs and tunics. She had a hazy memory of Purah all making them pose for a photo, that no one seemed to have wanted at the time.

_'_ _I said something awful to him today... My research was going nowhere. I was feeling depressed, and I had told him repeatedly not to accompany me. But he did anyway, as he always does, and so I yelled at him without restraint. He seemed confused by my anger. I feel terribly guilty...and that guilt only makes me more agitated then I was before.'_

_'_ _I am unsure how to put today's events into words. Words so often evade me lately, and now more than ever. He saved me. Without a thought for his own life, he protected me from the ruthless blades of the Yiga Clan. Though I've been cold to him all this time...taking my selfish and childish anger out on him at every turn... Still, he was there for me. I won't ever forget that. Tomorrow, I shall apologise for all that has transpired between us. And then...I will try talking to him. To Link. It's worth a shot.'_

The next few pages Zelda knew about, she had already had a firm grasping in what happened. She had felt incredibly guilty throughout the whole thing, but she eventually moved on, but rereading the events in her diary made the guilt grow back, and even stronger than before. In her mind, Zelda had already forgiven Link if he wanted nothing to do with her after she finally found the courage and strength to rescue him.

_'_ _Bit by bit, I've gotten Link to open up to me. It turns out he's quite a glutton. He can't resist a delicious meal! When I finally got around to asking why he's so quiet all the time, I could tell it was difficult for him to say. But he did. With so much at stake, and so many eyes upon him, he feels it necessary to stay strong and to silently bear any burden. A feeling I know all too well... For him, it has caused him to stop outwardly expressing his thoughts and feelings. I always believed him to be simply a gifted person who had never faced a day of hardship. How wrong I was... Everyone has struggles that go unseen by the world... I was so absorbed with my own problems, I failed to see his. I wish to talk with him more and to see what lies beneath those calm waters, to hear him speak freely and openly... And perhaps I, too, will be able to bare my soul to him and share the demons that have plagued me all these years.'_

_'_ _Father scolded me again today. He told me I am to have nothing more to do with researching ancient technology. He insisted that I focus instead on training that will help me awaken my sealing magic. I was so frustrated and ashamed I could not even speak. I've been training since I was a child, and yet... Mother passed the year before my training was to begin. In losing her, I lost not just a mother, but a teacher. Mother used to smile and tell me, "Zelda, my love, all will be well in the end. You can do anything." But she was wrong. No matter how I try or how much time passes...the sealing power that is my birthright evades me. Tomorrow I journey with Link to the Spring of Power to train. But this, too, will end in failure. Such is my curse.'_

_'_ _I had a dream last night... In a place consumed by darkness, a lone woman gazed at me, haloed by blinding light. I sensed she was...not of this world. I don't know if she was a fairy or a goddess, but she was beautiful. Her lips spoke urgently, but her voice did not reach me. Would I have heard her if my power was awoken? Or was my dream simply a manifestation of my fears? I am sure I will know the answer soon, whether I wish to or not…'_

The guilt for her actions towards Link only grew. She felt like the most horrid person in all of Hyrule. There was nothing that could ever excuse her actions towards Link. As she read on, the guilt she was feeling was causing nothing but pain in her heart. Firstly, she was completely horrible towards Link, and it was completely unjust for why she did it. Secondly, it was because of her they failed the first time. She didn't have the strength, the knowledge or the courage to be able to have control of the power.

In the cold room of the inn, Zelda felt too hot. Despite the spa package she had early, she felt all hot, sticky and sweaty. Zelda could feel dampness in the corner of her eyes, she refused to cry. She didn't deserve to cry. Zelda bit back a sob, it caught painfully in her throat, but Zelda still refused to make a sound. As Zelda fought with herself to try and not make a sound, she started to feel lightheaded, she realised her breath was coming in little pants. She felt numb all over. Without any warning, Zelda threw up her dinner all over her lap. There was nothing she could now. The flood gates where opened wide open. Fat, hot tears streamed down her face. No matter how many times, Zelda tried to calm herself down, but she couldn't.

_Zelda…_

_Zelda._

Zelda took a deep breath and tried to find out where the voices were coming from. She recognised the voice instantly, it was Link. There was concern dripping through his voice.

_You are stronger than you give yourself credit for. No one blames you over of happened 100 years ago, so you shouldn't blame yourself._

Listening to Link's voice managed to calm Zelda down enough for her to think straight. She was quick to walk over to a small basin with a jug of water on the side, Zelda poured the water into the basin and using the cloth next to it, she have her face a quick wipe down. The coldness of the cloth did wonders on her hot skin. Zelda was glad they had given her a twin room with two single beds. She stripped the sheets on the bed she was on previously and placed them in a neat pile at the end of the bed. Her old diary had fallen on the ground, after tonight, Zelda decided she had enough and was quick to return the diary to her pouch.

Zelda felt an overwhelming sense of tiredness come over to her. When she had made it to the second bed, she pulled back the covers and slipped in. The sheets were cold as there had been no one sitting there, and Zelda loved the feeling of the cold sheets on her still hot skin. As Zelda nodded off, she made the mental note to tell the innkeeper about the mess she had made on the bed and try to help out as much as she could.

* * *

Zelda tried her best not to feel prideful. There were still so many things that could go wrong, but so many things had gone right. Zelda had successfully infiltrated the Yiga Clan hideout, helped out the people of Gerudo Town and even mastered riding sand seals. But Zelda had an overwhelming sense of doubt over her skills to defeat the last Divine Beast and ultimately set Vah Naboris free from Ganon's control. Zelda was acutely aware if it weren't for her failure over a hundred years ago, they wouldn't be in this situation. She was all to blame.

The moment Zelda placed the Sheikah Slate on the main control unit, she knew she would have to face the creature in control of the Divine Beast. Zelda used all the courage she possessed and placed the slate down. Vah Naboris started to shake violently, the main control unit started to have a purple mist swirling around it. Zelda turned around to see it all coming together in a massive mass. Zelda realised this was Thunderblight Ganon.

"Stay on you edge Zelda. This formidable adversary was made by Ganon and brought me to a warrior's demise 100 years ago. Do not allow this to be your end. Fight for your life…and its death!" Zelda heard Urbosa speak. "This thing is fast! Watch yourself!"

Zelda looked and saw Thunderblight Ganon was zipping around the room, Zelda equip herself with a shield, and prepared to defend herself from whatever attack Thunderblight Ganon decided to throw at her. Zelda jumped back as the Thunderblight swung his sword at Zelda. She watched him retreat into the corner, Zelda pushed her legs as fast as they could run, she pulled out a Royal Boardsword and tried to get as many slashes into Thunderblight Ganon as she could. To Zelda's shock and joy, Thunderblight Ganon raised his shield in time, but Zelda's sword was cutting through the shield. She stroke right then left and then came around to hit Thunderblight Ganon again.

Zelda continued her assault in a similar fashion. She would dodge Thunderblight Ganon and then move to the offence when he retreated and get in as many hits as she could. After Zelda had managed to preform a successful dodge, she was quick to see an opening and was quick to do a flurry of attacks to Thunderblight Ganon.

Thunderblight Ganon disappeared in a blue light, but from her past experiences, Zelda knew the fight was far from over, if anything, the fight just got harder. Zelda looked around and saw he situated himself on top of the control panel. Thunderblight Ganon was charging up, making his lightening attacks no doubt more powerful.

"Watch that lightening!" Urbosa exclaimed. Like the other champions, Urbosa had been offering words of encouragement during her fight, it was something Zelda loved. It made her feel like she could actually have a chance of winning. There was always the doubt that she would lose, the champions were warriors, and more experienced than what Zelda ever had been. If they could over-power a warrior, then what can a scholar of a princess do to end the fight.

Zelda watched as metal poles all fell to the ground, she moved back quickly after realising the plan—metal conducts lighting after all. Zelda wondered if the magnesis rune in the Sheikah Slate would be able to lift the poles up, when she pointed the slate at a pole, Zelda looked at the screen of the slate and saw the pole turn yellow. Zelda dove out of the way was Thunderblight Ganon brought down the lightening. The lightening hit every single pole at different times. Zelda already had a plan in her head. She stood back and watched the poles fall, just before he struck them with lightening, she pulled one up and brought it close to Thunderblight Ganon. When the lightening stroke the pole, Thunderblight Ganon fell to the ground. Zelda ran and delivered as many strikes as she could.

Zelda fell back and watched to see Thunderblight Ganon's next move. He turned around and started to charge at Zelda, with another well-timed backflip, Zelda unleashed a flurry of attacks when she saw an opening. Thunderblight Ganon flew back and collapsed on the ground, he slowly got back up. Zelda could clearly see he was badly damaged, and a well placed hit from her could end this whole fight. But as a last resort, Thunderblight's centre eye started to power up for an attack. Zelda was quick to equip herself with a shield to parry the attack right back to Thunderblight Ganon. When the beamed fired, Zelda had timed it perfectly, and the beam was sent back to Thunderblight Ganon. Giving the Thunderblight no time to recuperate, Zelda used the Bow of Light to deliver the final blow to Thunderblight Ganon.

"Well done, little bird." Urbosa said to Zelda.

Zelda made her way back up to the main control panel in the middle of the Divine Beast. When she placed the Sheikah Slate on the terminal, it turned blue. Zelda turned her head as she heard footsteps making their way down the stairs, Zelda was looking right at Urbosa.

"I knew you wouldn't let us down little bird. Thanks to your valour and skill, my soul is free and Naboris is ours once again. Which means finally…we can complete what we started years ago, we Gerudo have no tolerance for unfinished business, I've waited so long for the moment to see you finally rush Hyrule Castle, as well as for the moment the I incinerate Ganon into a pile of ash, which reminds me, I wanted to give you a little something. Please accept this gift, which has come to be known as Urbosa's Fury. It will no doubt be of use to you." Urbosa turned to tell Zelda.

"Thank you Urbosa, but I cannot accept this—"

"Do not worry yourself, it is not much use to me these days." With a snap of her fingers, Urbosa sent a golden orb to Zelda. Zelda was filled of strength, eager to test it out, Zelda snapped her fingers. A clap of thunder echoed and lightening bolts rained down behind her. Zelda turned to face Urbosa, and saw the Gerudo Champion laughing, for an unknown reason, Zelda started to laugh too.

"Both you and Link, I know you have suffered much regarding what happened to us Champions. But this is how things had to happen. No one need carry blame." Urbosa turned to tell Zelda.

"That's not true!" Zelda exclaimed. "I should have to carry the blame, everyone did their part, and I failed at my own, all because I couldn't unlock this cursed power!" Zelda exclaimed with tears gathering in her eyes.

"Oh my little bird," Urbosa came towards Zelda and wrapped her tight in a hug. Zelda allowed her tears to fall and she grasped Urbosa tightly in her grasp, as if she was going to lose her. "You carry no blame in any of this. The only one to blame is Ganon."

Zelda started to protest, but Urbosa was quick to shut her off.

"You weren't the one to end us. From what I see, it was intended to happen like this. You needed to be stronger to defeat Ganon, we all did. We all needed to learn how to work as a team, only as a team we could defeat Ganon. I'm so proud of you Zelda. You've had to overcome rough challenges." Urbosa gave Zelda a gentle kiss on the top of her head.

Zelda nodded at Urbosa, it didn't curb Zelda's doubt over herself, but it did make her feel better for the mean time. Like the previous times, Zelda felt herself disappear and then reappear in front of Gerudo Town. Zelda looked behind her and saw Vah Naboris was taking aim at Hyrule Castle.

_Zelda…_

_Zelda._

_Thanks to you, all of the Divine Beasts have returned to us and their spirits of the Champions are free. We will all be awaiting your clash with Ganon at Hyrule Castle._

* * *

_**A/N: Here it is. Sorry it was a little later than I expected. I'm sorry if anyone is disappointed for only seeing Zelda taking on one Divine Beast. I had always intended for it to be that way. I was an easy decision on what Divine Beast I was going to use. I only hoped I did the mother/daughter relationship justice. There is not much left to this story. I only have one more chapter and an epilogue planned. Like this chapter, the next chapter is going to be a long one, it could even be split into 2. It just depends how I feel.** _

_**I'm also sorry for anyone who thinks this chapter is too long. I didn't expect myself to have so many ideas when it came to Zelda exploring Hyrule Castle and reading her diary! Anyways, I'll see you all in the next chapter.** _


	5. Chapter Five

Zelda was reluctant to leave Gerudo Town. She had become fast friends with the Chief, Riju. Gerudo Town was her oasis. There, she forgot about her duties and tasks she had to carry out. Before Zelda left, Riju gave Zelda the Thunder Helm as she had not only helped out with Vah Naboris, but little quests and jobs in Gerudo Town. Zelda was grateful of the gift given to her by the Gerudo. They had also gifted her Urbosa’s Scimitar of the Seven and her Daybreaker shield.

Zelda was quick to return to Hateno Village, there she made a beeline for her home and filled the last weapon display slot with the scimitar and the shield was placed leaning up again the wall. She looked at all of the weapons that adorned the wall. They all held significant places in her heart as they were all the chosen weapons of the Champion’s of Hyrule. Zelda knew she would never be able to forgive herself if she broken or damaged any of the weapons. When night came, Zelda was more than happy to sleep in her own bed.

Zelda was up bright and early the next morning, she was happily sitting at her table, sipping some tea she had been given by Impa. Spewed out on the table was a map of Hyrule, the Sheikah Slate, Zelda’s Research Journal and a few books on Ancient Sheikah Technology. Zelda was trying to find the rest of the shrines throughout Hyrule. One of the Sheikah books said there was 120 shrines spread throughout Hyrule. But the books had nothing on their locations. It was driving her insane. Zelda dully noted that she might have to travel to some villages and stables, as often the people there would give her a riddle to solve and there would be a shrine nearby.

A few weeks later saw Zelda gliding down to where she thought the last shrine was. She was completely puzzled by the shrine. She had walked past it plenty of times, never before and she thought about going to the Forgotten Temple. Upon travelling to the Snowfield Stable, the shrine tracker on the Sheikah Slate would go crazy, for the life of her, Zelda could never figure out where the shrine was, therefore, she didn’t think it would be at the bottom of the ravine. Zelda peaked her head through the only entrance into the temple, the place was crawling with guardians.

Zelda stood top the side and hastily put on her ancient amour, she was tempted to place the travel gate there and grab a few more extra ancient arrows from Robbie and warp back. But when Zelda checked her inventory, she had eight ancient arrows. There couldn’t be many more than six. Zelda spared a glance and saw her calculations were right.

Zelda tried to force oxygen down into her lungs. Never in her life had Zelda been this far off in calculations. It shocked her. Zelda didn’t expect there to be even more guardians before the shrine. Conveniently, Zelda had run out of ancient arrows, so Zelda risked everything and ran through the next group of guardians. Luckily, Zelda had still had Daruk’s Protection and was able to utilise it until she got to the shrine.

A short few moments later, saw Zelda kneeled in front of the statue of the Goddess behind the shrine. She had prayed to the Goddess many times during her journey, always praying for more power, the power was always granted to her, but she did have to trade off spirit orbs. This time, Zelda was using it to max out her own stamina. Once the trade was completed, Zelda turned to walk back out of the temple.

_Once again my child, I come to you._

Zelda looked around and realised the statue of the Goddess was glowing once again. She was quick to kneeled before the statue.

_My child, you have proven time and time again your strength, courage and knowledge that resides deep within you. And now, for that, I bless you with my power._

Zelda was bathed in a golden light, she could feel her inner power grow. Once the light was gone, Zelda looked down at the palms of her hands, she felt a warm sensation on the back of her right hand and saw the Triforce shinning in a brilliant golden light.

_Now make haste my child! Your knight is waiting for you to rescue him. You are now the hero now, my dear Zelda._

* * *

“I sense your power Princess.” Impa said. After being granted the power of the Goddess, Zelda returned to Kakariko Village to talk to Impa.

“The Goddess bestowed it upon me when I had completed the final shrine.” Zelda told the Sheikah elder. “I know I have to face Ganon now,” Zelda spared a look at he floor below her. “But I feel incomplete, like I’m missing something. I have already visited all the locations in the slate and recovered a huge portions of my memories, but I’m still missing something.”

“All twelve pictures already? You’ve visited every place?!” Impa was sure it would take Zelda a long while to recover the memories from the Sheikah Slate. “There is one final memory you need to see. I suppose it’s time, I will reveal the location of the final memory.”

Zelda was taken aback. She watched eagerly as the Sheikah Elder stood up and made her way over to a painting to Zelda’s left.

“Heres what happened, Master Link gave me specific instructions, he asked me to wait to show you this.” Zelda followed Impa to the painting, the princess could swear she had been to that location before. “This is the final picture. Does it look familiar? From this village you should be able to get there in a half day’s time.”

Zelda looked deeply at the picture. She instantly recognised the Dueling Peaks in the picture. Already from the evidence in the picture and the information Impa had given her, Zelda had a strong suspicion where it was.

“Now go, princess. Seek out what Master Link has shown you.”

* * *

Zelda stood before the fork in the road, where the left side lead to Kakariko Village, and the right towards Hateno Village. Zelda wasn’t able to take a few steps towards the Hateno Fort before she was assaulted with a vision.

_“Perhaps we should rest at the fort.” Zelda said. “I mean Kakariko is still a solid few hours by foot. We’re much closer to Hateno Fort. We could rest and have some of your wounds looked at.” The princess spared a glance at her appointed knight. She had no doubt in her mind if she would to let go of his hand he would collapse on the ground._

_“Whatever one you chose we need to go now.” Link said with urgency in his voice._

Zelda shook the vision out of her mind as she walked towards Fort Hateno. As she walked the path, her mind was assaulted with many visions of the past. It was as if she was walking through the same events, only 100 years later. In the depths of Zelda’s mind, she could see the destruction of everything. It was frightening for Zelda, she couldn’t help the sudden coldness that covered her body and the shivers that came with it.

She stood and watched the memories play out in her head. The undying support Link was giving her, the protection and the chance to run away to save herself. Zelda saw the Goddess come to her and give her the Bow of Light. She couldn’t suppress the gasp in her as Link was ready to give his life for her, then when she stepped in front of him and was faced with the blast that spelt her demise.

Zelda held her breath as she watched Link hold her, and the horrific realisation that she would die. The little seeds of doubt in her skills came back to Zelda, as she watched Link converse with the Master Sword, then the Sheikah Warriors coming to see them. Before she was brought out of the vision, she heard Link speak something to her. 

_“Be strong Zelda, you can get through this—I know you can. I’ll see you soon.”_

Zelda fell to the ground, sobs racked her body as she cried over her complete failure. The idea of her being the cause of Hyrule’s failure came back in full force, the memory didn’t lie. If she even had a slight grasp on the power she was to wield, they wouldn’t be here. Despite the constant reassurances of Purah, Link, Impa and even Urbosa, she was to blame. There was no bending around the bush about it. If only she was strong enough, the Champions wouldn’t have been defeated, Link wouldn’t have been trapped fighting Ganon, her father would have lived and Hyrule would have flourished. It was her fault, and she would not rest until she fixed her mistake.

It had taken a few hours before Zelda managed to calm herself down enough to move, she pulled up the time on the Sheikah Slate and saw it was getting later in the night. Zelda decided it would be best if she slept somewhere for the night, she would much rather go into fight Ganon fully rested, rather than half-awake. A blue light engulfed Zelda as she warped to her home in Hateno Village.

When Zelda made it into her home, it was cozy. The afternoon sun had obviously been shinning in and the house had trapped the heat in, it was comforting. Zelda was quick to start on making some dinner for herself. It was simple enough, some cooked meat and fried greens. But it was filling enough for her.

* * *

Zelda didn’t want to admit it, but she had been selfishly avoiding Hyrule Castle for the past few days. Before she recovered all her memories, she had no doubt in her in her mind to go and storm Hyrule Castle, save Link and defeat Ganon in the process. But after seeing the last memory, it was obvious, she was the reason why they had failed one hundred years ago, What if she still wasn’t strong enough? It was only a little comfort that she now held the power of the Goddess, but what if she shocked half way through and failed to seal Ganon away and doom all of Hyrule in the process.

The weapons of the Champions, shined in the light streaming through the window of Zelda’s home in Hateno. The princess was sitting by the table looking at the weapons with tears in her eyes. She didn’t deserve them, she didn’t deserve the powers they had bestowed upon her, she was a disgrace. Zelda knew at some stage she would have to go and face Ganon. She couldn’t allow Link to wait forever.

Zelda wasn’t paying attention to much, she was too wrapped up in her own thoughts. It wasn’t until she heard someone knocking at the door, when she was taken out of her thoughts.

“I know you’re in there princess!” Zelda heard a squeal from outside her door.

Zelda sighed to herself and went to open the door, she had only pulled the door back a little bit, when the person on the other side of the door, pushed the door open and Zelda out of the way.

“I love what you’ve done to the place!” Purah clapped her hands together.

“Purah? What are you doing here?” Zelda questioned as she looked at the Sheikah scientist.

“We’ve been worried about you~” Purah replied in a sing-song voice. “We haven’t heard anything from you since Impa had told you were the final memory was.”

“Oh,” Zelda avoided eye contact with Purah and looked at the floor. “I’m fine.”

“I don’t believe you for a moment.” Purah said as she pulled out a chair and sat down.

Zelda copied Purah and sat opposite her. Purah narrowed her gaze at Zelda. If Zelda wasn’t scared for feeling like she’s been interrogated, Zelda would have found the look on Purah’s face comical.

“Spill it.” Purah said.

“No,” Zelda said firmly. “This is my burden, not yours.”

“Are we friends?” Purah asked.

“Without a doubt,” Zelda replied instantly.

“Then split it.”

Zelda fell into silence, she felt tiny under the stern look Purah was giving her. Part of her wanted to give in and spill all the inner turmoil, while the other part wanted to guard it close to her heart and take it to the grave.

“I’m a failure.” Zelda finally muttered under her breath.

“What makes you say that?”

“I was the reason why we failed a hundred years ago. And I’m going to be the reason why we fail this time.”

Purah stayed silent.

“You think it’s true then.” Zelda was stunned by Purah’s silence.

“No!” Purah suddenly exclaimed and made Zelda jump in her seat. “Of course I don’t, and no one else in all of Hyrule believes it.”

“You must be joking. If anyone had any common sense, they would realise I’m the cause.”

“No one is to blame.” Purah turned and looked Zelda in the eyes. “Ganon came when we were least expecting him, he appeared in a place where we didn’t expect him. If anyone is to blame its Ganon himself.”

“No—”

“Let me finish.” Purah cut off Zelda. “We weren’t prepared. The champions weren’t prepared, not even Link was prepared. But we are this time. And we will win this time. You have always been stronger than you’ve ever believed. You have all the knowledge, power and courage you could ever need to take down Ganon.”

“Everyone has been saying that!” Zelda stood up and her chair fell down behind her. “They put so much faith in me! But I can’t do it! I will fail like last time! And everyone would be disappointed in me!” Zelda collapsed to the ground and held her face in her hands, desperately trying to stop the tears.

“We all know that you can do this. Without a single doubt in my mind, I know you will succeed.” Purah made her way around the table and gathered Zelda in her arms as much as she could. “We all love you, and we all believe in you.”

* * *

It was the next day. Zelda had plucked up the courage and decided it was time to go to Hyrule Castle. She had spent most of the night preparing different elixirs to help her take down Ganon. Zelda made sure all her weapons and shields were up to standard. She wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. Zelda knew she would be in the fight of her life, and there was a massive possibility that she could die, so she was going to give Ganon everything she had.

Zelda was glad she had competed the shrine that was by the docks in the castle. It would save her having to travel through the old Castle Town. There were too many guardians and she wanted to save all of her ancient arrows. In a stream of blue light, Zelda landed safely on the travel gate of the shrine.

She ran up the stairs to her left and made it into the secret entrance of the library. After raiding Hyrule Castle a few times, she was pretty confident of the layout of the castle. It helped that the Sheikah Slate had labels on certain parts of the castle. Zelda knew were Ganon was, he was up in the Sanctum.

Zelda had skilfully made her way up to the long path leading to the Sanctum. She had skilfully dodged and parried shots fired at her by guardians. Zelda could feel herself tire from the seemingly long journey up to the Sanctum and quickly downed a stamina elixir. She couldn’t go into this fight tired, if she did, she had no doubt in her mind that she would fail, and failure wasn’t an option. Summoning all the courage Zelda had, she walked into the Sanctum.

In the middle of the room, shoved deep in-between the stone, was a sword. Zelda knew it was the Master Sword. The sword itself looked like it had seen better days. It looked fractured and rusting, but there was a bright golden light bathed over the sword. In the Sanctum itself, the air was swirling with malice, and there was a huge mass on the ceiling.

_Zelda…_

_Zelda._

_I’m so sorry…but my power isn’t strong enough. I can’t hold him._

Zelda heard Link and looked around and saw the Master Sword fade away. Looking up, Zelda saw the purple, red mass was pulsating. Before a blue beam shot out of the mass and caused destruction in the Sanctum. A beast fell down from the mass, Zelda never really got the chance to completely look at the creature as the floor beneath her caved in. Zelda felt herself falling, she was quick to use the paraglider her father had given to her upon leaving the Great Plateau. As she glided down. She could see the ugly form stretching out on ground below her. It was Calamity Ganon.

Zelda landed in front of Ganon and the beast let out a terrible shriek. From all the corners of Hyrule, the ground started to shake. All four of the Divine Beasts were readying a unified assault against Ganon. Zelda heard all of the Champions talking to her. 

_Now my moment has finally come. Brace yourself Ganon for the sting of my revenge!_

_This will be our final opportunity. We will not fail!_

_Let’s go, Princess! Now! Open wide, Ganon!_

_A hundred years in the making, stay strong Princess. Our moment has arrived._

The ground rumbled beneath Zelda’s feet, she struggle to stay up right. The walls of Hyrule Castle shook under the pressure of the attack coming from all the Divine Beasts at once. A blue light came racing down the shaft Zelda had just fallen through. The attack rained down on Ganon, the beast let out yet another ear piercing shriek as it was attacked. Zelda was instantly able to see the damage the unified assault had left on Ganon. He struggled to stand back up, but Zelda knew it was only the beginning of the fight.

Zelda drew out a sword, and activated Daruk’s Protection and started to charge at Ganon. Ganon wasted no time and brought his sword down to strike Zelda. Zelda was quicker and flipped backwards to avoid the strike, with quick eyes, Zelda was able to see an opening and raced forward to deliver a flurry of slashes at Ganon. Ganon retaliated and brought his sword down again, this time, Zelda didn’t see it, and was knocked back. But she took no damage and Daruk protected her.

“Thank you, Daruk.” Zelda whispered under her breath.

With a deep breath, Zelda ran forward again to attack Ganon. She stroke him from the left, then the right, before she spun around again and hit from the left. She used the same pattern a few times before Ganon brought down his own sword and used it to knock Zelda back. The whole exchanged, happened again, but this time, Zelda felt Daruk’s Protection break. It chilled Zelda, but she was quick to down a defence elixir to try and compensate for the loss in her defence.

Ganon walked back and used his flame sword to set the room ablaze. Zelda dodged the flames that were racing towards her. Using this as a distraction, Ganon fired a stream of flames towards Zelda. Zelda didn’t see it coming and was hit. She could feel the protection of the elixir and her amour trying to stop the flames from completely burning her alive.

Zelda wanted to finish this fight before Ganon finished her, so with a click of her fingers, Zelda used Urbosa’s Fury and brought down a lightening attack on Ganon. Ganon screamed in pain and backed up to the wall. Zelda knew she couldn’t reach Ganon with her sword, so she swapped it out for the Bow of Light. She fired shot after shot at Ganon. Each time, Ganon took an unbelievable amount of damage. But it still wasn’t enough to knock him down. Zelda could see a guardian beam firing from Ganon and swiftly dove out of the way.

Zelda then remembered the ancient shield she had brought from Robbie and used it to parry the attacks at Ganon. Zelda had almost sent all the blasts straight back at Ganon, but a few missed.

“No matter,” Zelda mumbled to herself as she swapped out her bow for her sword. “I just got to hit him harder.” She said through the grit of her teeth. And with an almighty cry, Zelda launched herself at Ganon again got in a few hits with her sword. Ganon tried the same fire tactic as before, but Zelda knew better and ran in closer to Ganon and delivered a few hits to his chest.

Zelda fell back and watched as Ganon, tried to figure out another tactic. The princess wasn’t going to give him the chance. With another snap of her fingers, lightening rained down on Ganon stopping him in his tracks and giving Zelda enough time to deliver a few blows to Ganon.

Enraged, Ganon had quickly found a different tactic. Zelda could feel herself getting hotter, and saw Ganon heating up. She was quick to run back and hid herself behind her shield until she could figure out what Ganon was going to do next.

Ganon launched a flurry of attacks, all reminiscent of the Blights she had fought in the Divine Beasts. Zelda was now dodging and diving out of the way of the attacks. She felt herself take massive hits from Ganon and was thrown back to the wall. There was no doubt in her mind that she had massive amounts of internal bleeding, cuts, scratches and broken bones. Zelda allowed her head to fall against the wall in defeat. There was nothing else she could do. She was going to die here and Ganon would go and wreak havoc on all of Hyrule, she was a failure. Tears streamed down her face as Zelda accepted her fate and watched as a wall of fire came closer to her.

“You need to fight, Princess.” Zelda felt herself heal. All of her wounds from the attacks were gone. All of her fatigue was gone, she felt refreshed and ready to take on Ganon once again.

“Thank you Mipha.” Zelda smiled as she brought herself to her feet.

With a new found courage and confidence Zelda went to attack Ganon. Each of her attacks were getting stronger, and there was more power behind it.

“Lend me your power one more time Urbosa.” Zelda said as she snapped her fingers and the final attack of lightening rained down on Ganon.

With the last attack, Zelda ran forward and pulled out her Bow of Light. Arrows went flying toward Ganon’s face and the beast collapsed on the ground. Not able to stand up. Zelda herself, felt her guard drop. She too, collapsed on the ground and took in deep breaths to try and stop the burn in her lungs, from them being used harshly throughout the final moments of the fight.

Malice dripped from Ganon, all disappearing before it could pool on the ground. The beast struggled to stand back up. Each of Ganon’s limbs trembling as they tried in vain to support Ganon’s weight. Ganon fell back on his back legs and screeched as malice flew out from the beast and disappeared before it could finally hit Zelda. There was an explosion of pink light, Zelda brought up her arm to shield her eyes from the blinding light.

Zelda scooted herself backwards, in fear of what was happening. Was it over? Goddess, Zelda hoped so. The malice started to form a cloud and disappeared up the shaft. Zelda stood up and tried to figure out how to get out of the hole she was in. Before she could even try to use Revali’s Gale, Zelda felt herself being consumed up in a golden light.

* * *

Zelda looked around as saw she was standing in the middle of Hyrule Field. To her right was her horse, Nay. She couldn’t figure out why she was there, nor why her horse was there. Zelda looked up to the golden sky and saw streams of malice making their way to her location. Zelda gritted her teeth as she realised the fight was far from over.

_Ganon…_

_Ganon._

Zelda turned to follow Link’s voice and saw all the malice pooling together, she turned and mounted Nay and calmed the horse down as it was spooked by the mass of malice.

_Ganon was born out of a dark past. He is pure embodiment of the ancient evil that is reborn time and time again. He has given up on reincarnation and assumed his pure, enraged form. If set free upon our world, the destruction will be unlike anything ever seen before._

_Swords won’t damage him. You must use your Bow of Light—a powerful weapon in the face of evil._

_Zelda…you may not yet be at a point where you have fully recovered your memories. But I know you have the strength inside you to defeat Ganon. You have all the courage, knowledge and power you need._

Zelda calmed her horse and started galloping towards the final form of Ganon. The closer she got, it felt as though the malice was choking her, but now wasn’t the time for weakness. She was so close in defeating Ganon, and she was not going to give up now. Zelda was careful in staring Nay away from attacks from Ganon.

_I will hold the Malice back as much as I can, but my power is weakening. Attack any glowing points you see!_

Zelda rode around Ganon and watched in awe as she saw a mass of blue light start to attack Ganon. It was like there was a sword slashing the beast, hacking him down to pieces.

_Shoot the blue cracks!_

A blue crack appeared on the side of the beast. While riding Nay, Zelda drew back her bow and let as many shots as she could fly, in hopes at least one will hit the glowing target. Zelda had no time to look back at her shot, as she saw nothing one. Making Nay ride even faster, Zelda tried to reached the blue crack in time. Once again she pulled back the draw string and let her arrows fly. This time, Zelda stopped and watched as three of the five arrows she shot made their mark.

Ganon fired another blast of malice at Zelda, this time she wasn’t so lucky and both her and Nay got hit. Zelda instantly assumed the worst and thought she had lost Nay for good as she was thrown off, but her faithful steed was still standing there. Zelda raced over and mounted her horse again. She took a deep breath and rode towards Ganon.

The blue light was back again, attacking Ganon and weakening him. Zelda rode up closer to Ganon to get a better shot at him. Zelda was prepared as she saw blue cracks appear on Ganon. Zelda rode on Nay around Ganon, making sure all of her arrows made their mark on Ganon.

_It’s working Zelda!_

__

A massive grin graced Zelda’s face as she heard an overwhelming bout of happiness in Link’s voice. It was encouraging, it lifted her spirits and allowed her to think they could actually pull this off. Ganon was engulfed in another bout of blue light and a deep crack appeared below Ganon. Zelda was careful when she rode underneath Ganon. She could fell Nay’s hesitation, and was swift to calm him down. Zelda arched her back backwards and craned her neck to fire an arrow right into Ganon’s belly.

_Yes! We’re almost there! Zelda! Look up there._

It was refreshing to hear the happiness in Link’s voice. Zelda rode around to the front of Ganon and saw something on his forehead. A bright blue crack, came racing down Ganon’s face.

_That’s the very core of Ganon’s being! Do what you must, Zelda!_

Zelda rode as close as she dared to Ganon, when she was close enough, she dismounted Nay and slapped Nay on the behind to send him off somewhere in the distance. Zelda was happy when Nay had taken shelter under some nearby trees. Zelda had an idea, and she only hoped it would work. She didn’t want to take any chances. So she crouched down and used Revali’s Gale to send herself soaring upwards so she had a better target. When she was level with the eye in the middle of the crack, Zelda released as many arrows as she could, before she had to take her paraglider.

Malice surrounded Ganon, and a bright blue light shot up out of Ganon. The light travelled upwards before it gently landed behind her. Zelda turned around and she was faced with the crouching form of Link. Zelda turned away from Link and looked towards Ganon. She placed her bow on her back and watched Ganon form. Ganon was screeching as it was over come with pain.

Zelda felt her hands get warm and a glow of golden light surrounded her. Ganon collapsed on the ground before her, looking her deep in the eyes. She could feel her powers growing and released and pulse of golden light. Ganon reacted and assumed a pure malice for, he twisted and turned in the sky, in complete pain from the power of the light. He came racing back down towards Zelda. The princess didn’t reach for her weapon and lifted her hand to the sky. She used all of her might to centre the power to the middle of her palm. Her light grew brighter as the dark malice came closer to Zelda. A ball of golden light consumed Ganon, but he was fighting to break out. Using all of her energy, Zelda focused more power to the golden globe and tried to seal away the darkness inside. The globe grew smaller and smaller, until it just completely disappeared and a golden light spread across Hyrule.

The skies had started to clear up, instead of the dark clouds that seamed to have been completely made up of malice, the golden sun shone down on Hyrule. Zelda let out a sigh of relief and fell backwards on to the ground, completely spent and out of breath.

“Zelda!” Link called out and used the Master Sword to haul himself up off the ground and limp over to the princess.

“Link!” She laughed as she saw her old knight trip over his own feet. “I’m fine.”

Link scrambled up and continued to run towards Zelda. He tackled her into a hug and rested his forehead on her shoulder. Link allowed himself to calm right down. There was no point in getting worked up over this.

“Are you all right?” Link pulled back and asked Zelda.

“I’ve already told you. I’m fine. But what of you?” Zelda turned to start fussing over Link. “Your not too badly injured?”

Link shook his head. “I’ve always believed in you, I never once did lose faith in you. I really did try and watch your journey. You’ve become an even greater hero than I!” Link laughed.

“No that’s not true,” Zelda said to Link with tears down her face. “You’ve always been a great hero, greater than me.”

“You were the one who single handedly just took down Ganon!”

“But you were housed with that ugly beast for a century!”

The pair looked at each other and laughed. They had been together for all of five minutes and they were already bickering amongst each other. The pair fell back together, nestling themselves into the grass. Zelda was lying partly on Link and rested her head on his shoulder.

“I could get used to this.” Zelda mumbled as she looked to the sky.

“After everything, you deserve it.” Link smiled at her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here it is! This is the final chapter! I'm gonna write two epilogues/one shots about post-Ganon life. I know this was a long wait for this chapter and I know I had ended up with writing two one shots before I actually finished this chapter. I hit a major writers block while writing this chapter. I hoped I did the fight with Ganon justice. 
> 
> In the middle when Zelda was struck down and didn't want to get up, I really wanted to write in for Link to appear and take down Ganon, but it would completely ruin the whole idea of Link being a damsel in destress. (But I'm just a complete sucker for a knight in shining amour saving the princess (I blame Disney 100%)). 
> 
> I know in this game we doing really get much of Link talking. He mostly doesn't talk unless he absolutely has to, but I kinda threw that idea out of the window with this chapter, especially towards the end when he mets up with Zelda again. Oh well, that's why they call it fanfiction.


	6. Epilogue One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick little note, this chapter/epilogue is a lot shorter than the previous chapters.

**Epilogue One**

* * *

Eventually, Zelda decided it was time to move. Ideally, she wanted to make it to her home in Hateno Village before nightfall. She felt like she could sleep for another one hundred years, Zelda could only assume Link would be worst off than her. He did after all spend one hundred years fighting to contain Ganon in Hyrule Castle.

“C’mon,” Zelda stood. “It’s time to go.” Zelda patted Link on the shoulder.

Link felt like lead, he couldn’t lift his arms, nor could he find the will power to even entertain the idea of trying to stand. Link was only just keeping his eyes open, he knew the moment he closed his eyes, he would completely fall asleep where he laid.

“I know you’re tried, but if we get to Hateno Village, we can go to sleep in a real bed.” Zelda tried to bribe Link.

Link sighed. After a hundred years, Link wasn’t sure if he actually remembered what a bed looked or felt like. He knew they were going to be way more comfortable than the grassy plain he was lying on. Link made up his mind. If the princess wanted to travel to Hateno, Link was more than willing to go on the trip with her.

Grabbing the Master Sword next to him, Link pulled himself up, with almost all of his weight being supported by the sword. As he stood, he felt a stabbing pain in his ribs. Link chose to ignore it, he didn’t want to slow the princess down even more than he would. His legs screamed with pain as he limped over to where Zelda was standing with her horse.

“Link!” Zelda ran over to the knight when she realised he was limping and saw how stiffly he was moving. Zelda propped Link up and took most of his weight as she lead him to Nay. “You can ride.”

“No,” Link turned to tell her and carefully hid a grimace of pain. “It’s improper, Princess.”

“But you’re completely exhausted!” Zelda exclaimed. “Formalities aside, you need it more than me.”

“But what kind of man does that make me if I make you trek your way up to Hateno, while I ride your horse?”

Zelda saw that the argument was going nowhere. They could being standing there all afternoon debating who should ride Nay. “What if I rode with you?”

“Pardon?” Link frowned.

“What if I rode with you?” Zelda repeated herself. “You can’t make the journey on foot, you’re too exhausted. To save us arguing for the next few hours, it would be easier if we just rode together. I want to make it to the Dueling Peaks before sundown at the minimum.”

Even though a hundred years had past, Link was still Zelda’s Appointed Knight, nothing would change that. It was completely improper for him to even entertain the idea of sharing a horse with her. Besides, he was needed on foot, to fight off anything that had any intentions of harming the princess. But one look at Zelda, made Link backtrack. He could tell she was going through with her idea, even if it meant she would throw him on the back of the horse like a deer she had just killed.

“Fine.” Link grumbled as he stumbled to the horse and gently patted it.

“Good,” Zelda smiled. “You can ride in the front.” Zelda wasted no time and mounted her horse. She held out a hand for Link to grab. Link ignored the hand and sheathed the Master Sword and grabbed onto the saddle and pulled himself up onto the horse.

When Link was finally in the saddle, his vision blurred and he gasp as he felt a dampness spread across his stomach. Link watched as his tunic changed from blue, to purple, until a dark crimson bleed across the lower half of his tunic. Link risked lifting up the tunic and saw the bandages that were wrapped around him one hundred years early were cover in blood.

“Link? Are you al—” Zelda stopped and held her breath as she saw blood pooling at Link’s stomach. When he lifted his shirt, she could see all of the cuts littering his body. “You should have said something!” Zelda panicked. She wasted no time and dug her heels into Nay’s side, making the horse speed off in the direction of the Dueling Peaks.

As they rode, Zelda pushed Nay as fast as he could run. When riding through Hyrule, Zelda noticed Link swaying back and forth. It frightened Zelda. She had just gotten Link back, she didn’t want to lose him.

“Link. I need you to stay awake.” Zelda poked the knight. Link only hummed in return, like he was well on his way to passing out. Zelda hoped Link could last until the Dueling Peaks. There had to be someone there with enough medical knowledge to help patch up Link.

As they came closer to the peaks, Zelda felt Link start to heavily lean back on her shoulder. Zelda tried her best to wake up Link, but he wouldn’t. He was deeply unconscious. Zelda’s panic spiked again and she pushed Nay to run even faster.

“Help!” Zelda called out as she made her way to the stables. Almost all of the travellers and the helpers at the stables came racing out. “He’s bleeding out badly. He had only just passed out as we made our way through the Dueling Peaks.”

Everyone snapped into action and all helped to lift Link down from Nay. Zelda watched as they carried him into the stables.

* * *

A few hours later, Zelda sat at Link’s bedside. It was only by luck that a traveller had some medical experience and was able to do a quick patch job on Link. He had warned Zelda that all of the bandages and stitches he had done will only hold temporarily and he would need more helped from a trained healer. Zelda had instantly changed their destination, instead of Hateno Village, she would take Link up to Kakariko Village and hoped on of the Sheikah there could heal Link.

Zelda was grateful for the meal the stable had provided her while she was watching over Link, she had forgotten about her own needs, and had no intension to leave Link unattended. As the night closed in, Zelda was nervous to fall asleep, if anything changed in Link over the night, she wanted to know instantly. A few of the others in the stables had offered to watch over Link, but Zelda politely declined.

It was well into the morning by the time Link had finally opened his eyes. Zelda, who had dozed off from watching Link all night, missed when Link had slowly sat up in bed.

Link had struggled to sit up. It was a combination of both the bandages heavily wrapped around him, and the pain he still was feeling from the cuts and gashes all over his body. This throat felt dry and it hurt to swallow. Sitting on the table next to him was a pitcher of water and a glass, Link carefully reached over despite the protest of his muscles and poured himself a glass of water.

As Link took slow sips, he looked around the room. It looked like he was in a circular tent with wooden floors. There were chairs, tables and beds spread through the room. For the life of him, Link couldn’t think where he was. Link heard a soft snore on his left and saw Zelda dozing with her head back on the chair.

Link sighed heavily, it was completely improper for him to sleep in a bed, while the princess had to sleep in a wooden chair. There was no doubt in his mind that her back and neck would be sore from sleeping in the chair. Link carefully turned and placed his feet on the floor. As if he was testing his strength, Link slowly came up to stand on his two feet. He staggered a bit and had to catch himself on the bed before he would have fell onto the wooden floors, Link quickly looked around to see if anyone had seen him, there was no one in the stable Link soon realised and breathed out a sigh in relief.

Link made his way around the bed and very carefully lifted the princess up. Zelda woke a little, and when Link saw it on her face he froze, but the old princess just curled up and snuggling into the warmth that Link provided. Despite his aches and pains, Link carried her the short distance to the bed and gently laid her down. He smiled softly at her as she turned over onto her side and snuggled into the pillows and mattress.

The appointed knight turned on his heel and headed out of the tent. Link was in complete awe of the site of everyone. The travellers were all mingling amongst each other, the stable hands were carefully attending to the horse and donkeys in the stable and there seemed to be someone by the cooking pot, making lunch for everyone.

It was nice to see Hyrule completely recovered from when the Calamity first struck. If Link had a spare moment from the fighting, while he was in Hyrule Castle, he would often think of all of the different outcomes if he was just the little bit faster, stronger or even smarter. He had no doubt that the princess would have been better protected, they would have been able to regroup and devise a plan to take down Ganon, without having to wait one hundred years. Ganon had saw this, and constantly brought Link down because of it. It was a dirty tactic, a tactic where if he could beat Link physically, then Ganon was going to mentally. Link was never going to allow the princess to carry any blame, it was only his fault.

One of the ladies from the cooking pot had come over to Link.

“What are you doing out of bed?!” She scolded him. “You should be resting. Blinky was able to treat most of your injures, but not all.” She had placed her hand on his shoulders and turned him to walk back to the stable. “Now off with you—” She gently pushed Link in the direction of the stable. “—I will be back to check on you when I bring you lunch.”

Link, feeling powerless, walked back into the stable and sat in the chair where the princess was sitting moments ago. Leaning back, Link sighed deeply and crossed his arms over his chest. The pain he had tried to ignore the moment he woke up, was gaining an edge on him. Link still refused to feel the pain and took to caring for the Master Sword. It too had been ran through the wringer.

Quite often over the hundred years, Link was able to converse with the Master Sword, but ever since being freed from Ganon, he didn’t heard the sword once. Upon looking at the sword, Link realised the Master Sword had seen better days. The blade was all scratched and blunt, the hilt on the other hand, was just a little dirty. Until the princess woke up, Link planned to clean and polish up the Master Sword.

* * *

When Zelda eventually woke up, she realised she was in a bed. A very comfy bed. Zelda sat up, she managed to have a little peek outside and realised it was dark. There was small amounts of chatter echoing through the stables. Zelda felt like she could fall back asleep, but then she was quick to remember the events of the past day. She had finally defeated and concealed Ganon. She had finally rescued Link. Zelda bolted up in the bed and looked at the other beds to try and find Link. Zelda soon realised she was in the bed Link was in.

Zelda jumped up out of the bed and got tangled in the bed sheets in the process, she scanned the room trying to find Link. She couldn’t see him anywhere. Zelda walked out of the stables and saw a crowd of people sitting around the cooking pot, everyone trading stories, drinking, laughing and eating. One of the stable hands must have finished a hilarious story and the whole crowded broke out into laughter. It brought a smile to Zelda’s face and she was able to hear a laugh louder than the rest, it was Link’s.

Running over to the crowd, Zelda was thankful to the Goddess to see Link sitting down close to the cooking pot with the Master Sword resting on his back.

“Alrighty!” One of the stable hands called. “Link! I’m sure you’ll ‘ave an interesting story!”

Everyone turned to the small blonde, looking at him with eager eyes.

“Hmm,” Link started to think. “There was a time where I had to dress up as a girl to get into Gerudo Town.”

Link launched himself into a story where he was first kicked out of the town because he was obviously a male. But with some help of the chief of Gerudo Town, he found an outfit and was able to cross-dress as a female to get into the town. Everyone asked why he wanted to sneak into the town. With a laugh, Link said he was trying to find a friend of his. He later revealed he had lifted the shawl over his mouth a little too low, and the guards caught a glimpse of his stubble on his face and tossed him out and into the sand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the first epilogue. I've got to admit, this little epilogue is very self-indulgent. I had always thought Link would still carry injures from the fight over 100 years ago, but I was only going to mention it briefly in the epilogue, but I love the whole hurt/whump Link trope. The last update should happen around the same time next week. I did some looking on they internet and saw the knights code (a set of rules that all knights followed back in like medieval England), and it gave me some dangerous ideas for the next chapter. 
> 
> I have crossed posted this on Fanfiction.Net, but I've decided to mainly post works on here now. It just is so much easier. I'll definitely finish updating this story over there, but all my works will be on here now :)


	7. Epilogue Two

It had been a complete up hill battle, but Zelda was finally in a place where she wanted to be. It was a long time in the making, over a hundred years and all it took was the fall of Hyrule for Zelda to discover what she really wanted to do with her life. To some, it may have seemed like a no brainer, but all Zelda wanted to do was travel. She wanted to see Hyrule more in-depth. Explore everywhere, and even travel beyond, but her title and duties of being the princess always pulled her back. Now, there was no royal family, there was no princess, Zelda was just Zelda.

Zelda was completely selfish when it came to Link. After he was healed and ready to travel again, Zelda instantly relieved him of his duties as her Appointed Knight. There was a slither of selfish desire, that Zelda hoped Link would still want to stay with her, and protect her. To no one’s surprise, Link said no.

“Zelda, I would follow you to the ends of the world.” He had started. “You have always been more than my charge—I love you.”

The confession had made Zelda tear up. “But what if I’m not the same Zelda as before.”

“That doesn’t matter.” Link had said fiercely and pulled Zelda into a hug.

After spending a week in Kakariko Village, the Heroes of Hyrule, left and headed towards Hateno Village, where they could completely rest for the next few weeks, and decide what they wanted to do.

When riding through the Ash Swamp, Link tensed up in the horse he was riding. As it happened, Zelda managed to catch a few horses in while she was preparing herself to face Ganon. One of the horses she had caught was a brown mare, with four white socks. Link could swear it was Epona. The horse certainly looked like his old horse, he knew it would have been impossible though, his horse would have suffered just how the other horses had, one hundred years ago.

As Link closed his eyes, he could see the events that happened one hundred years ago pass through his mind, like it was only yesterday. He painfully pulled his horse, Apollo, to a halt as Link saw the princess fall one hundred years ago. Despite what people had said, Zelda, Impa and even Purah, it wasn’t his fault what happened all those years ago, but somewhere deep down, Link knew if he was stronger and better, the whole fiasco could have been avoided. And more importantly, Zelda wouldn’t be hurt.

Link couldn’t imagine not having all of his memories, it would be painful no knowing who you were and who people were. For Zelda, she was back to square one. Link knew she had recovered a huge portions of her memories, but it’s all the small memories that he feels the guilt the most.

The next few weeks are spent in peace in Hateno Village. Most of the villagers where happy to see Zelda riding back through the village, but were more intrigued when they realised Zelda was being followed closely behind by someone. They call came crowding around Zelda. Link’s eyes narrowed out of habit, and was looking around to determine if there was any threat around. Satisfied, Link slowly lowered his guard and smiled and some of the younger children of the village as they looked in awe at the sword strapped to his back.

The following days, saw Link and Zelda mostly sleeping. Another huge debate had broken out over who should take the bed.

“Link!” Zelda called out. “You must! You’ve been fighting Ganon for over one hundred years! Not only that, but you are my guest!”

“It’s completely improper Princess.” Link frowned back at Zelda. “I’m more than comfortable to take a bed roll and sleep downstairs.”

Ever since the pair had been reunited, Link had slipped comfortably slipped back into the roll of appointed knight. Even though Zelda had relieved him of his duty, Link still carried on as Zelda didn’t say anything. He was polite and chivalrous to a fault, he had yet to over step any boundaries. And refused to either call Zelda, by her first name, or see both himself and Zelda as equals.

It never sat well with Zelda when Link would refer to her as the princess or rant on about formalities, when in this time, titles and formalities meant nothing. It had taken Zelda long enough to convince Link that he could speak freely, and not be in a self-imposed silence. Link eventually moved away from Zelda and made his way downstairs, grabbing the bedroll on his way down.

Later in the night, Link was awoken by screaming coming from the bed up in the loft. Thinking the worse, Link was up out of his own bed and running up the stairs with the Master Sword in hand. He looked and there appeared to be no threat, but looking at Zelda, Link realised she was having a nightmare. Link knew how unpleasant they were. He’s always had flashes of visions (which often grew into nightmares), mostly people who looked exactly like him, but normally dressed in green, he knew they were the heroes of the past, and he would often watch them through their own journey and watch them take down an evil, time and time again. Although now, he had nightmares about Ganon, all the possibilities that could have happened, each was just as bad as the other.

Link was quiet in walking up to the princess.

“Zelda,” he muttered quietly. There was no response. “Zelda,” Link said again, a little more firmly this time.

It was enough to wake the princess from her sleep. Zelda slowly opened her eyes and looked at Link.

“Oh,” Zelda said quite embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Link dismissed. “Are you ok?”

“I think I am now.” Zelda looked Link in the eyes. Link adverted his eyes, and turned to leave. “Can you please stay?”

Link turned back around and saw the princess pleading with her eyes. Never in his life had he ever seen her so vulnerable. It broke his heart. Before he could even think about anything, he was making his way back to the bed and hopping in next to her.

“Of course.” Link muttered to Zelda as she started to doze off again.

* * *

Link and Zelda had travelled through most of Hyrule. Link was quite upset when he was both in Zora’s Domain and Gorons City. The memories he had there were all but bittersweet. They were filled with his friends, namely, Mipha and Daruk. Knowing the champions where well and truly gone, made Link very upset. The guilt he had tried to suppress, came straight back in full force. Link refused to speak for a solid week and a half.

It wasn’t until Zelda shared her own fears and regrets that Link snapped out of his own self-imposed silence.

“It’s not just you that feels the guilt.” Zelda told Link with tears down her face.

“You hold no fault in this. It’s my own.” Link fired back. “I’ve told you once before, and I will tell you again, no one blames you over what happened one hundred years ago, so you shouldn’t blame yourself.”

Things were now rocky between the two heroes to say the least. Both were walking on egg shells around each other, either one wanted to say anything that could set the other off. It was hard. After all of Zelda’s attempts to make Link more comfortable and prove he was her equal were shattered.

Link had reverted back to how he was before the Calamity. It drove Zelda absolutely mad. She had snapped at Link more than what necessary. Link would still say nothing, playing the role of the appointed knight extremely well. The only thing Zelda could tell that was different, was a far-off look in Link’s eyes, like he was deep in thought. Deep enough in thought, that Link very rarely reacted to anything, except things that posed a threat to Zelda’s safety, it was like a switch came on in Link, and he often sprung into action. Whether if it was a stray monster, or a villager who had gotten a little too close for Link’s liking.

Zelda was tried of it all, she had told Link that much. Zelda thought they had grown from the knight and princess relationship, to something more, but it seemed Zelda was wrong. It was a situation that was happening far too often for Zelda’s liking. She didn’t like to be wrong, she loved to be right.

“Why are you like this?!” Zelda exclaimed at Link after he stared down a villager, whose glance landed on Zelda for one-second too much.

“Your safety is the uttermost importance, princess.” Link replied, without turning to make eye contact with Zelda.

“There is no danger!” Zelda hopped of her horse and turned and stormed off in the direction of her house.

Link said nothing as he hopped of his own horse and lead both horses through Hateno where Zelda’s house was. In the small stables off to the side of Zelda’s house, Link was taking the saddles off the horses and combing through their manes.

“I hope she realises I mean well.” Link said as he brushed Nay’s mane. “I was the reason of her downfall one hundred years ago, there is no escaping that. I just don’t want anything to happen to her.”

“You know that’s not true.” Link was very rarely startled, he pride himself on his ability to know what was happening around him. But in the recent few months, Zelda had managed to catch him of guard. Link let out a little yelp as he jumped and dropped the brush from his hands.

“Zelda,” Her name rolled off his tongue as he turned to face her. “How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough,” Zelda walked up and gently wrapped her arms around Link. “You need to know that you aren’t at fault. No one is.” Zelda’s grip tightened around her knight. “If there would be someone to blame, it would be Ganon.”

* * *

After the afternoon in the stables, things between Link and Zelda got better. It had been a lengthy conversation between the pair, but a much needed one. Zelda assured Link that it wasn’t his fault, like he had done to her. Link felt better because of it. It had came as a complete help when they had visited Zora Domain again, and Link was assured that the Zora people held no blame towards Link.

In fact, Link was quick to make friends with the Zora Prince, Sidon. As the pair’s friendship grew, they would often disappear from both Zora Domain and Hateno Village. There was one incident where the pair had left for three whole weeks before they finally returned. When they did return, Link had a wide grin on his face and Sidon’sgrin was even bigger.

“Did something happen while you were gone?” Zelda asked when she saw the pair walking into Zora’s Domain.

“No,” Link replied. Zelda was suspicious, she came even more suspicious when Sidon nudged Link, something defiantly happened.

A few days had passed since Link had returned from his trip with Sidon. And now Zelda and Link were sitting in their home in Hateno, eating a dinner that Link had skilfully prepared for them.

“I constantly forget how much of a good cook you are!” Zelda exclaimed as she shoved a spoonful of rice in her mouth.

Link nodded and painfully swallowed his own mouthful. He felt hot all over and was internally shaking. This had to be the scariest moment of his life. He would rather face Ganon a hundred more times than ask the simple question that was burning on the tip of his tongue.

“Zelda,” Link turned to speak. “You know I love you right?”

“Of course, and I love you back.” She smiled at Link, wondering where this conversation was going. “Why do you ask?”

Link placed his knife and fork down and reached into his pocket and pulled out a small leather pouch. “I just wanted to make sure before I gave you this.” Link reached into the little pouch and pulled out a golden ring with a small simple diamond in the middle.

Zelda’s eyes started to water and she placed her hand over her mouth and a wide grin spread across her face.

“Zelda, I know I’m not good—”

“Yes!” Zelda interrupted Link. “Of course I will marry you!”

Link sighed in relief and walked over to Zelda and put the ring on her finger. When he had done, he tilted his head back up to met Zelda’s eyes.

“I love you.” Zelda muttered before she pulled Link in for a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! The last part of the story! I can't believe that I've made it this far! I know I said in the last chapter that it would only be a week or so before the final part was up, sorry. I have left it on a little bit of a cliffhanger, but I might write a few one shots after this, but I have a few other things I want to finish and I would really like to edit this story a little bit more. 
> 
> Although I've got to say, I'm a little conflicted about this ending, maybe because it was left on a cliffhanger, or maybe because I've rushed it? I would love to hear what you think about it!
> 
> Also, I just want your opinion, should Zelda rebuild the monarchy or should she and Link live the simple life in Hateno? I've always loved both ideas, I just want to see what you think they should do.

**Author's Note:**

> This is also posted on my fanfiction.net account! (pewterpotter)


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